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Understanding digital transformation of early childhood pre-service teacher education in China

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Content i
UNDERSTANDING DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION OF EARLY CHILDHOOD
PRE-SERVICE TEACHER EDUCATION IN CHINA
by
Zhuyun Xia
A Dissertation Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE USC ROSSIER SCHOOL OF EDUCATION
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
DOCTOR OF EDUCATION
August 2024
Copyright 2024 Zhuyun Xia

ii
Abstract
This qualitative study investigated the experiences and perceptions of early childhood
education faculty in China on digital transformation (DT) in Early Childhood Pre-Service
Teacher Education (ECPTE) programs at the college level. Nineteen one-on-one semi-structured
interviews and three focus groups with faculty who worked in three ECPTE programs in China
were conducted to explore the three research questions: (1) What have early childhood pre- service teacher educators at the college level in China experienced in their programs related to
digital transformation?; (2) How do early childhood pre-service teacher educators perceive their
capabilities to integrate technology into their instructional practices?; and (3) What are early
childhood pre-service teacher educators’ perceptions about implementing digital transformation, particularly regarding online practicum with young children? The interviews and focus group
discussions generated ten key findings from the faculty’s perspective on DT implementation and
deepened understanding of the complicity of DT implementation under the national policy
advocating for DT in teacher education in China. Three recommendations were proposed for
better DT in ECPTE contexts: (1) Build a shared understanding of DT among different
stakeholders at multiple levels; (2) Create a systematic DT implementation plan that fully
considers the nature of the ECPTE program; and (3) Develop high-quality training programs on
DT-related capacities for ECPTE faculty. These recommendations can help Chinese education
policymakers adjust future DT-related sub-policies or strategic plans. They can also benefit the
implementation of DT in ECPTE programs with more systematic strategies and needed resources
for better outcomes. Also, this study provided a practical reference for other worldwide
colleagues exploring and practicing DT in pre-service teacher education in the digital era.

iii
Dedication
To my husband, thirteen years after I let go of my PhD acceptance offer, it was you who
reignited my passion for pursuing my doctorate dream. You not only encouraged me but also
supported every life choice I ventured to explore. Your constant reassurance, “You can be good
at anything you want to do,” has been my source of strength during my lowest moments. Thank
you for your unwavering belief in me. To my parents, it was your selfless journey to Shanghai, spanning thousands of miles, over
the past two years to be with Ethan, that allowed me the precious time to fully dedicate myself to
my dissertation. Having such caring, wise, and optimistic parents has been a privilege beyond
measure. Finally, to my beloved son Ethan, over the last two years, Mom has stood by your side
through some of our most challenging moments. Yet, amidst it all, Mom has witnessed your
remarkable courage. Welcome back to the cheerful and radiant you! Thank you for giving me the
opportunity to rethink what it means to be a mom and an educator.

iv
Acknowledgments
I want to extend my deepest gratitude and appreciation for my dissertation committee Dr. Cathy Krop (Chair), Dr. Larry Picus and Dr. Kathy Stowe. Dr. Krop, you possess a gentle yet
firm strength which inspires me a lot. Your feedback on my dissertation is always precise and
constructive, and our meetings consistently provide me with affirmation, giving me the energy to
keep moving forward. Dr. Picus and Dr. Stowe, thank you for dedicating your valuable time to
review my research. Your insightful feedback consistently pinpointed the areas needing
improvement, enabling me to complete this dissertation in a more rigorous manner. Next, I would like to thank every professor in the Global EdD program who provided
invaluable support throughout my doctorate learning journey. Dr. Robison, I vividly recall our
discussion about the significance of being a change maker during my interview. I want to assure
you that I remain committed to being a realistic idealists in the realm of early childhood
education, striving for greater equity and excellence in children’s education in China. Dr. Chung, your enthusiasm and rigor have made research feel both challenging and rewarding. Dr. Chong, thank you for making our global education journey a reality. This doctoral program has
broadened my perspective from early childhood education to a more comprehensive
understanding of global educational issues that currently occupy my thoughts. Finally, I would like to thank all of my fellow doctors of Cohort 11. What a cherished
memory it is to have such diverse, attractive, and professional souls come together and spend
more than two years exploring education in different countries and cultures. Thank you for
showing me what lifelong learners look like with your passion, perseverance, and certainty. I
know that each of you is a light chaser of your own destiny. Fight on!

v
Table of Contents
Abstract........................................................................................................................................... ii
Dedication...................................................................................................................................... iii
Acknowledgments..........................................................................................................................iv
List of Tables...................................................................................................................................x
List of Figures................................................................................................................................ xi
Chapter 1: Introduction ................................................................................................................... 1
Purpose of the Study................................................................................................................6
Definitions............................................................................................................................... 8
Conclusion...............................................................................................................................9
Chapter 2: Literature Review........................................................................................................ 11
Global Trend of Digital Transformation............................................................................... 11
Understanding Digital Transformation ......................................................................... 12
Digital Transformation of Teacher Education...............................................................18
Pervice Teacher Education in China ..................................................................................... 21
History of Pre-Service Teacher Education in China ..................................................... 22
Early Childhood Pre-Service Teacher Education in China ........................................... 30
Educational Digital Transformation: Story in China ............................................................ 36
Overview of China’s Policy on Digital Transformation in Education ..........................37
The Influence of Digital Transformation on Higher Education in China ..................... 42
Practice of Digital Transformation in Pre-Service Teacher Education .................................48
Lessons of DT Implementation in Pre-Service Teacher Education .............................. 49
Promising Practices of Digital Transformation in Pre-Service Teacher Education ......52

vi
Conceptual Framework: Turner’s Liminality Theory ........................................................... 55
Conclusion.............................................................................................................................57
Chapter 3: Methods....................................................................................................................... 58
Organizational Overview...................................................................................................... 60
Population and Sample ..........................................................................................................62
Data Collection and Instrumentation.....................................................................................63
Screening Survey...........................................................................................................63
Focus Groups.................................................................................................................67
Data Analysis........................................................................................................................ 69
Credibility and Trustworthiness............................................................................................ 71
Ethics..................................................................................................................................... 72
Role of Researcher................................................................................................................ 73
Chapter 4: Presentation of Data and Findings...............................................................................75
Overview of Study Participants.............................................................................................75
Research Question 1: What Have Early Childhood Pre-Service Teacher Educators at the
College Level in China Experienced in Their Programs Related to Digital Transformation?77
Finding 1: The COVID-19 Pandemic Boosted a Sudden Shift of Early Childhood Pre- Service Teacher Education Modality From Face-to-Face to Online .............................78
Finding 2: The Learning Platform Xuexi Tong Became an Important Vehicle for Pre- service Teacher Educators to Implement DT................................................................ 83
Finding 3: Booming Digital Education Resource Construction With Full Participation
Has Contrary Low Usage .............................................................................................. 87

vii
Finding 4: Emerging Requirement From Vocational Skills Competitions Became a
Driver of ECPTE Programs’ DT Practice ..................................................................... 92
Summary of Findings for Research Question 1 ............................................................ 94
Research Question 2: How Do Early Childhood Pre-Service Teacher Educators Perceive
Their Capabilities to Integrate Technology Into Their Instructional Practices? ................... 95
Finding 1: Most Teachers Perceive Their Digital-Related Skills as Weak but Have Low
Motivation to Improve ...................................................................................................96
Finding 2: Awareness of DT is Perceived by Faculty as the Prerequisite For Enhancing
Related Capabilities.......................................................................................................99
Finding 3: The lack of high-quality DT training is an obstacle to better DT
implementation............................................................................................................102
Summary of Findings for Research Question 2 .......................................................... 105
Research Question 3: What Are Early Childhood Pre-Service Teacher Educators’ Perceptions About Implementing Digital Transformation, Particularly Regarding Online
Practicum With Young Children? ....................................................................................... 106
Finding 1: DT Implementation In Online Practicum Is Still Very Much In The Initial
Stages Of Exploration ................................................................................................. 107
Finding 2: Breaking Time and Space Constraints and Simulation Features Create New
Opportunities for Technology-Empowered Practicum............................................... 112
Finding 3: Online Practicum Cannot Replace Real Child-Teacher Interactions for Early
Childhood Pre-Service Teacher Preparation ............................................................... 115
Summary of Findings for Research Question 3 .......................................................... 117
Emergent Themes................................................................................................................118

viii
Time, Time, Time ........................................................................................................118
Conclusion...........................................................................................................................120
Chapter Five: Discussion and Recommendations for Practice ................................................... 122
Discussion of Findings........................................................................................................ 123
Discussion of Findings Research Question 1.............................................................. 123
Discussion of Findings Research Question 2.............................................................. 125
Discussion of Findings Research Question 3.............................................................. 127
Recommendations for Practice ............................................................................................129
Recommendation 1: Build A Shared Understanding of Digital Transformation Among
Different Stakeholders At Multiple Levels................................................................. 131
Recommendation 2: Create A Systematic DT Implementation Plan That Fully
Considers the Nature of The ECPTE Program............................................................134
Recommendation 3: Develop High-Quality Training Programs on DT-Related
Capacities for the ECPTE Faculty...............................................................................140
Limitations and Delimitations............................................................................................. 142
Recommendations For Future Research ..............................................................................143
Conclusion...........................................................................................................................144
References................................................................................................................................... 148
Appendix A Recruiting Information for Potential Interview Participants.................................. 165
Appendix B Screening Survey Items.......................................................................................... 166
Appendix C University of Southern California Information Sheet.............................................168
Appendix D Individual Faculty Interview Protocol.................................................................... 170
Appendix E1 Focus Group Introduction and Ground Rules....................................................... 176

ix
Appendix E2 Focus Group Protocol........................................................................................... 177

x
List of Tables
Table 1 ...........................................................................................................................................64
Table 2 ...........................................................................................................................................76
Table 3 ...........................................................................................................................................77
Table 5 .........................................................................................................................................104
Table 6 .........................................................................................................................................120
Table 7 .........................................................................................................................................130

xi
List of Figures
Figure 1..........................................................................................................................................86
Figure 2........................................................................................................................................100
Figure 3........................................................................................................................................111

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Chapter 1: Introduction
Permeating every aspect of our lives, digital technologies are driving the transformation of
individuals, organizations, and societies (Schwab, 2015). Therefore, many entities, including
education institutions at all levels, are experiencing “a process that aims to improve an entity by
triggering significant changes to its properties through combinations of information, computing, communication, and connectivity technologies” (Vial, 2019, p.9), which is defined as Digital
Transformation (DT). While the DT of education has been asserted to be the next stage of school
reform (Tulchinsky, 2017), the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the process of DT in education, including shifting the delivery mode of pre-service teacher education from face-to-face to online
in a sudden way (K. Li et al., 2022; Mohebi & Meda, 2021). In the context of global
digitalization, the Chinese government has been emphasizing the need to seize the opportunity of
digital technologies development since 2012, and currently, the construction of Digital China has
become a national strategy (National Internet Information Office, 2022). Consequently, the
Chinese Ministry of Education (MOE) has released a series of related policies emphasizing the
DT of teacher education in recent years, which emphasizes the high construction of digital
education resources for all, improvement of teachers’ digital literacy, and the innovation of
blended learning for better learning outcomes (China National Academy of Education Science, 2022). Nevertheless, under a large number of promulgated policies and documents at the national
level, there is a lack of in-depth research on the specific implementation of DT in pre-service
teacher education (Miao et al., 2023). Further, according to MOE statistics, China currently operates the world’s most extensive
early childhood education (ECE) system, with 46.27 million children ranging in age from 3 to 6
years enrolled in 0.29 million preschools and supported by 3.24 million teachers in 2022 (MOE,

2
2023). With the government’s goal to provide universal preschool education nationwide, the
scale of early childhood pre-service teacher education (ECPTE) programs has been expanding
dramatically in the past decade (Jiang et al., 2017; Ji, 2021). Moreover, with today’s children
already digital natives (Cao et al., 2021; Dong et al., 2020), the DT of early childhood pre- service teacher education programs is considered essential to ensure that future early childhood
teachers can equip their students with appropriate skills for the digital era and that the programs
are ready to adapt to the disruptive global transition and meet the national macro-policy
requirements. However, research suggests that most teacher preparation programs are unprepared
for such changes and shifts (Ogbonnaya et al., 2020; Scull et al., 2020). The high reliance on
face-to-face interactions in teacher education makes online coursework and online practicum a
considerable challenge, particularly for early childhood pre-service teachers working with young
children who learn through a play-based and hands-on approach (K. Li et al., 2022; Timmons et
al., 2021; Yamamura & Tsustsui, 2021). With studies focused on DT in pre-service teacher education scarce, and even fewer studies
on the digitalization of early childhood pre-service teacher education, the purpose of this study
was to understand the experiences and perceptions of early childhood education faculty in China
on digital transformation in Early Childhood pre-service Teacher Education programs at the
college level. This understanding is essential to ensure the quality of pre-service teacher
preparation for young children in the 21st century in China and elsewhere for the long run. Statement of the Problem
The wave of digitalization in education sweeping the world has also prompted a series of
responsive changes in teacher education. Because teachers are considered the vehicle through
which any educational philosophy, curriculum, and new skills are delivered, the quality of

3
teacher education is a determining factor of education in future society and students’ readiness
for the fast-changing world (Shurygin et al., 2022). Teachers must have the appropriate
knowledge and capacities to pass on relevant knowledge and skills needed in the 21st century to
younger generations (Efimov & Lapteva, 2018). Therefore, the digital transformation of pre- service teacher education programs to ensure that future teachers can equip their students with
appropriate skills for the digital era has become an urgent need for global teacher education
(Afonso et al., 2022)
The disruptive changes in the global education landscape in recent years have also
amplified the need for the digital transformation of teacher education. Importantly, more and
more students are becoming online learners. Technology-mediated learning has gained
popularity in K-12 contexts and higher education. For example, approximately 11.8 million
undergraduate students (i.e., 75% of total undergraduate enrollment in the US) took at least one
distance education course in 2020 (National Center for Education Statistics, 2022). And in China, the campus network access rate of primary and secondary schools has reached 100%, and the
number of MOOC learners reached 1.088 billion by the end of 2021 (National Internet
Information Office, 2022). With these shifts already in place, the COVID-19 pandemic led to a dramatic shift in the
mode of delivering pre-service teacher education from face-to-face to online (K. Li et al., 2022;
Mohebi & Meda, 2021). Against this backdrop, teacher preparation programs have needed to
closely examine how digital modes of program delivery could be used to enhance pedagogical
knowledge, skills, and dispositions from students’ online preparation experiences (Bakia, et al., 2012; Heafner, 2022) and focus more extensively on the development of students’ skills for
teaching with technology (Kim, 2020).

4
However, researchers report that teacher preparation programs in various countries have
been and continue to be unprepared for such sudden changes. Many pre-service teacher
educators have not received systematic and formal training in online teaching. Further, many
pre-service students have no experience in systematic online learning, especially in developing
countries (Ogbonnaya et al., 2020; Scull et al., 2020). The pedagogical reliance on face-to-face
interactions in teacher education makes online coursework a challenge (K. Li et al., 2022;
Timmons et al., 2021; Yamamura & Tsustsui, 2021). Notably, the effectiveness and quality of
online practicum and field experience encounter concerns from different stakeholders because of
the limited social-emotional connections, authentic classroom interaction experience, and
responsiveness of online learning (Callaway-Cole & Kimble, 2021; Ogbonnaya et al., 2020). DT
of pre-service teacher education has become an urgent issue that needs to be better understood
and addressed (Li, 2022). The Special Challenges of Digital Transformation of Early Childhood Pre-service
Education
As discussed by some researchers, technology must be integrated into early-childhood
education since today’s children are already digital natives (Cao et al., 2021; Dong et al., 2020). They are growing up in a rapidly developing digital age far from that of their parents and
grandparents. Thus, ECPTE programs need to prepare pre-service teachers for this changing
need for young learners. Nevertheless, unlike adult learners, young children’s learning is play- based, and they develop through authentic activities with the people and materials around them
(Dong et al., 2020; Friedman et al., 2021). As stated by the National Association for the
Education of Young Children (NAEYC), digital content should be designed to facilitate active
and creative use by young children and to encourage social engagement with other children and

5
adults (NAEYC & Fred Rogers Center, 2012). Meanwhile, during the online teaching process, young children do not have the same self-discipline as K-12-year-olds, who can follow the
teacher's directions through the screen for long periods (Pourdavood & Song, 2022). In addition, most young children’s digital learning needs their parents’ facilitation, especially for online
course learning. Therefore, early childhood pre-service teachers must learn and practice
integrating their digital skills and capabilities with pedagogical content knowledge for ECE to
meet young children’s play-based educational needs and build quality interactions with their
families (Ogbonnaya et al., 2020; Pourdavood & Song, 2021). These characteristics of early
childhood learning require ECPTE programs to reconsider their curricula design and practicum
arrangements in a targeted manner and explore innovative delivery modes to ensure the high
quality of pre-service teacher education in the digital era. Yet studies on the experience of online teaching in ECPTE programs during the pandemic
showed that both teacher educators and pre-service teachers were not ready for such a sudden
transformation. Pre-service teachers reported struggles with online classroom management tasks
and challenges in working reasonably with children's families virtually (Mohibe & Meda, 2021;
Ogbonnaya et al., 2020), such as maintaining children’s active engagement and identifying
appropriate opportunities to scaffold their learning (Jin, 2023; Mohebi & Meda, 2021). In
addition, they have difficulty remaining flexible and responsive in their online practicums and, therefore, fail to cater to children’s individual needs in the class. Although some researchers have
investigated the DT of pre-service teacher education on digital teachers’ competencies, teacher
educators’ readiness for online teaching, and online practicum or field experiences, only a few
studies have discussed digitization for pre-service teacher education in early childhood education. Furthermore, discussions on the digital transformation of ECPTE in China through teacher

6
educators' perspectives are even scarcer (Kim, 2020; Kinkead-Clark, 2021; K.Li et al., 2022;
Mohebi & Meda, 2021). However, Chinese policymakers and administrators are strongly advocating for teachers to
utilize a wide range of digital tools and pedagogic approaches to support the digital learning
needs of children and to speed up the pace of DT in teacher education (Luo et al., 2021; MOE, 2023). But there is a vast divide between the strong drive from national policies and the lack of
research on the implementation of DT in pre-service teacher education programs, especially at
the college level, which is the mainstay of China's early childhood teacher workforce
development (Hu & Hu, 2018; Miao et al., 2023). Thus, conducting in-depth studies on the
implementation of DT in the ECPTE programs at the college level in China has become a
necessity and is essential for a comprehensive understanding of DT in the context of early
childhood teacher education and the construction of feasible practice strategies leading to
promising outcomes (Luo et al., 2021; Xing & Feng, 2018; Zhang, 2022). Purpose of the Study
The purpose of this study was to understand the experiences and perceptions of early
childhood education faculty in China on digital transformation in Early Childhood pre-service
Teacher Education programs at the college level. By deepening understanding of the DT
phenomenon of ECPTE programs in China, it hopes to address the literature gap of DT
implementation in pre-service teacher education to better prepare ECPTE programs for digital
transformation and to bridge the gap between the national policy documents on DT and the
actual practice with individual perceptions and stories. The study took Turner’s (1967, 1977) Liminality Theory as its conceptual framework. Through the lens of this concept, the “state of being” of teacher educators as individuals and

7
ECPTE programs as organizations in the DT process were explored, depicted, and analyzed
based on teacher educators’ perspectives. The following three research questions guided this
study:
1. What have early childhood pre-service teacher educators at the college level in
China experienced in their programs related to digital transformation?
2. How do early childhood pre-service teacher educators perceive their capabilities to
integrate technology into their instructional practices?
3. What are early childhood pre-service teacher educators’ perceptions about
implementing digital transformation, particularly regarding online practicum with
young children?
Significance of the Study
Accompanied by China’s national goal to integrate digital technologies into higher
education, senior-level administrators and policymakers need access to data that informs the
implementation of DT-related policies and supports the formation of unified future guidelines
and effective next steps. This study sought to provide rich data from early childhood pre-service
faculty’s perspectives on their experience and perceptions related to DT implementation. Such
data can help policymakers and higher education leaders in teacher preparation programs to
understand the complexity of DT at the practical level so as to scaffold the implementation of DT
in early childhood pre-service teacher education with more systematic implementation strategies
and needed resources. Furthermore, the individual perceptions and stories at the microimplementation level can bridge the gap between the national macro documents and the actual
practice in concrete contexts.

8
This study can also benefit teacher education scholars by adding to the limited body of
literature on the digital transformation of pre-service teacher education, especially in the field of
early childhood education. This study advances the literature by understanding the experiences
and perceptions of teacher educators at the college level and under a rapidly developing political
context for DT. Its findings about ECPTE programs’ responses to DT, teacher educators’ perceptions of online practicums, and their capabilities in integrating technologies can contribute
to future studies on DT in teacher education and facilitate reshaping the delivery mode of pre- service teacher education for better results for teachers and the young children in their care. Moreover, this study’s findings provide a practical reference for other worldwide colleagues
exploring and practicing DT in pre-service teacher education, and early childhood pre-service
education, in particular. As the country with the longest online teaching time from 2020 to 2022, with intermittent school lockdowns in different areas and supporting over 200 million students’ online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic, China’s DT of pre-service teacher education, both in terms of failures and successes, can present a valuable and reflective reference for pre- service teacher education practitioners in other countries. Definitions
Digital Transformation: Digital Transformation is “a process that aims to improve an entity
by triggering significant changes to its properties through combinations of information, computing, communication, and connectivity technologies” (Vial, 2019, p.9). Vial (2019) also developed a framework for DT. It is “a process where digital technologies
create disruptions triggering strategic responses from organizations that seek to alter their value
creation paths while managing the structural changes and organizational barriers that affect this
process's positive and negative outcomes” (Vial, 2019, p.10).

9
Early Childhood Pre-Service Teacher: In this study, the term early childhood pre-service
teacher refers to student-teachers who are professionally trained in formal teacher preparation
programs before entering the workforce to serve children aged 0-6 years. In China, normal
colleges specializing in early childhood education (You'er Shi Fan Zhuan Ke) are the main
supplier of preschool teachers in the landscape of the Chinese early childhood education
workforce. As such, this study will focus on these colleges that specialize in early childhood
education. Practicum: The concept of practicum relates to a field-based experience that provides pre- service students with real teaching experience where they learn how to interact with actual
learners (Pratiw, 2020), and practicum is considered an essential section for cultivating qualified
future teachers (Jin, 2022; Pratiw, 2020). As proposed by NAEYC in Professional Standards and
Competencies for Early Childhood Educators, practicums in early childhood are conducted with
guidance from a skilled mentor, coach, or early childhood instructor, including field observations, fieldwork, and student teaching or other learning experience take place in an early learning
education setting. Conclusion
This dissertation is organized into five chapters. This chapter introduced the global wave of
DT in the educational context and discussed the urgent need for further investigation of DT in
pre-service teacher education in China. The purpose of the study was to understand the
experiences and perceptions of pre-service faculty on digital transformation in ECPTE programs
at the college level. The study’s guiding research questions and the importance of the study were
discussed. Key concepts were defined to avoid ambiguity and to provide an operational
understanding of commonly used terms throughout the study.

10
Chapter Two will present relevant literature to provide a foundational understanding of
topics such as the global trend of DT, pre-service teacher education in China, including early
childhood pre-service teacher education, educational digital transformation in China, the practice
of digital transformation in pre-service teacher education, and the conceptual framing for this
study. Chapter Three will describe in detail the methods utilized to conduct this study, and
Chapter Four will present the data collected and the study findings. Finally, Chapter Five will
discuss the major findings in the context of scholarly literature and through the lens of the
conceptual framework as well as present commendations for DT implementation in the field of
early childhood teacher preparation.

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Chapter 2: Literature Review
This chapter includes a review of the literature on the global trend of digital transformation
driven by the fast-developing digital technologies and the COVID-19 pandemic. The definition
and framework of digital transformation (DT) are discussed as a foundation for further reviews
on DT in the teacher education context. Since this study focuses on the DT of pre-service teacher
education in China, the literature review then moves to the history and developmental
characteristics of Chinese pre-service teacher education, particularly in the early childhood realm. The larger picture of DT in the Chinese higher education context, including policy changes and
challenges that have influenced DT of pre-service teacher education, are discussed after this. Then, the literature review moves to the implementation of DT in pre-service teacher education, with both lessons and promising practices presented. The chapter ends with a discussion of
Turner’s Liminality Theory (1967, 1977), the framework employed to explore teacher educators’ perspectives on DT and their individual experiences and organizational responses to DT. Global Trend of Digital Transformation
More rapidly than other innovations in history, digital technologies have become
influencing rapid changes, reaching approximately 50% of the developing world’s population in
only two decades, according to data from The United Nations (UN) (United Nations [UN], 2020). Surrounded by fast-developing technologies, such as artificial intelligence, augmented reality, and robotics, is the Fourth Industrial Revolution, which is driven by the digital revolution that
has been occurring since the middle of the 20th century (Schwab, 2015). The Fourth Industrial
Revolution is characterized by a fusion of technologies that is blurring the lines between the
physical, digital, and biological spheres. The Organization for Economic Co-operation and
Development (OECD) describes the term Industry 4.0 as the use in the industrial production of

12
recent and often interconnected digital technologies that enable new and more efficient processes, which, in some cases, yield new goods and services (OECD, 2017). Undoubtedly, digital
technologies, which are viewed as combinations of information, computing, communication, and
connectivity technologies, such as social media, mobile, analytics, or embedded devices
(Bharadwaj et al., 2013; Fitzgerald et al., 2014), are the star of this story. They have represented
a fundamental transformation in the way we create, exchange, and distribute value. Furthermore, as stated by McKinsey Global Institute (MGI), digital flows are soaring with
the transmission of information, ideas, and innovation around the world, which has broadened
participation in the global economy and made the world more connected than ever (Manyika et
al., 2016). No countries, organizations, or individuals can afford to shut themselves off from
global flows. The response to such change must be integrated and comprehensive, involving all
stakeholders of the global polity, from the public and private sectors to academia and civil
society (Schwab, 2015). Collaborative global commitment to digital globalization has become an
urgent item on the global agenda (UN, 2020). And according to the World Economic Forum
(WEF), the infusion and breakthrough in emergent technologies have also been proposed as a
strategic intelligence in the solution to rebuild the economy sustainably following the COVID-19
pandemic. It has been forecast that digital platforms will soon be responsible for 60-70% of the
life of society (WEF, 2020). In light of such context, a deep understanding of the conceptual
definition of Digital Transformation and its essential features is necessary. Understanding Digital Transformation
Since the 1990s, digital technologies have permeated every aspect of our lives and are
driving the transformation of individuals, organizations, and societies. Therefore, the concept of
digital transformation has been multidisciplinary in nature from the very beginning and has

13
broad coverage. Although extant literature from different disciplinary perspectives introduced
DT as an element disruptor that fundamentally changes entire industries and organizations and
deepened our understanding of DT through various lenses, a consensus on its definition has not
been arrived at (Vial, 2019; Verhoef et al., 2021). Definition of Digital Transformation
A deep and systematic understanding of the concept of digital transformation requires
insight into its generation mechanism. Verhoef et al. (2021) identified three major external
factors driving the need for digital transformation. First, the coming of the World Wide Web and
its worldwide adoption, along with emerging related technologies, was a driving factor. Second, competition among organizations, especially in business, has grown more intensive and is
changing dramatically. Companies with high digital capacities have surpassed many traditional
business giants. Third, customer behaviors also changed as a response to the digital revolution
and have driven the need for DT. Similarly, some literature describes digital technologies as
inherently disruptive (Karimi & Walter, 2015). In light of these disruptions, organizations must
devise ways to remain competitive as digital technologies provide “both game-changing
opportunities for-and existential threats to -companies” (Sebastian et al. 2017, p.197). The
promise of going digital is not simply to automate processes but to open routes to new ways of
doing business (Fitzgerald et al., 2014). As such, organizations must advance strategic responses
to use technologies to enable changes in their value creation paths in order to complete the
transformation. However, in reality, these changes occur in a gradual manner. Therefore, the concept of DT
itself has evolved at different times of its development. Through conducting a scoping review
approach, researchers identified three stages of digital transformation: digitization, digitalization,

14
and digital transformation (Verhoef et al., 2021). Digitization is the encoding of analog
information into a digital format (Dougherty & Dunne, 2012; Yoo et al., 2010). It describes the
action of converting analog information into digital information (Verhoef et al., 2021). Digitalization describes how information technologies or digital technologies can be used to alter
existing business processes. Such a change often involves the organization of new sociotechnical
structures with digital artifacts, in which the digital technologies provided play a core role by
changing existing business models through updated communication, distribution, and
management tools (Dougherty & Dunne, 2012). In the first two stages, digital transformation is
still focused on the innovation of technologies itself and the use of technologies in optimizing
business models, which means technologies are the core. In the third stage, this change disrupts
the entire business model, involving reforming the entire company. As described by some
researchers, Digital Transformation describes a company-wide change that leads to the
development of new business models (Kane et al., 2015; Pagani & Pardo, 2017). A commonly
accepted definition of DT from a business perspective is using new digital technologies to enable
major business improvements, such as enhancing customer experience, streamlining operations, or creating new business models (Fitzgerald et al., 2014; Liere-Netheler et al., 2018). However, the reality is that DT is happening at all levels and aspects of society, not just in
the business field. Based on a systematic review of 282 peer-reviewed works, four essential
properties of DT were identified through a systematic decomposing of extant definitions by Vial
(2019): (1) Target entity is the unit of analysis affected by DT, such as a company, a school, or a
teacher education program; (2) Scope refers to the extent of the changes taking place within the
target entity’s properties, which in general is significant; (3) Means includes the digital
technologies involved in creating the change within the target entity; and (4) Expected outcome

15
presents the outcome of DT. In light of these essential properties, DT is described as “a process
that aims to improve an entity by triggering significant changes to its properties through
combinations of information, computing, communication, and connectivity technologies” (Vial, 2019, p.9). Furthermore, Vial (2019) suggested a framework of DT as “a process where digital
technologies create disruptions triggering strategic responses from organizations that seek to
alter their value creation paths while managing the structural changes and organizational
barriers that affect this process’s positive and negative outcomes” (p.10). This framework very
clearly describes DT as a dynamic process. It shows why this process of change happens—the
disruption brought about by digital technology; the way to change— strategic alignment and
restructuring; and the purpose of change—to alter the path of value creation and look for positive
results. It is worth mentioning that this framework acknowledges improvement as an expected
outcome of DT without guaranteeing its realization, which avoids the subjective bias that people
may have about DT. Digital Transformation in an Educational Context
Digital technologies alone provide little value to an organization (Kane, 2014). It is their use
within a specific context that enables an organization to uncover new ways to create value. The
adoption of digital technologies in education is generating tremendous value that is changing the
future, transforming the way of teaching and learning at all levels of education (Blundell et al., 2016; Kühn Hildebrandt, 2019). With fast-changing technological innovation and global
digitization, students are required to build future-ready skills for the digital era. Education needs
to focus on skills that are in demand in the real world and address the disconnect between
employer needs and available talent pools (World Economic Forum [WEF], 2020).

16
The DT of education is asserted to be the next stage of school reform, which has already
been observed due to the penetration of digital technologies into all areas of society (Uvarov, 2020). For example, the period from 2010 to 2020 witnessed a high increase and adoption of
digital technologies even before the COVID-19 pandemic. According to data provided by the
National Center for Education Statistics, there were 11.8 million undergraduate students (i.e., 75% of total undergraduate enrollment in the US) who took at least one distance education
course in 2020 (National Center for Education Statistics, 2022). From 2012 to 2018, the
percentages of undergraduate and graduate students enrolled in at least one distance education
course increased by 9% and 10%, respectively. Blended education and Massive Open Online
Courses (MOOCs) also have also undergone high growth in popularity. Meanwhile, Learning
Management Systems (LMS), such as Blackboard, Canvas, and Moodle, have played an
important role in online education (Xie et al., 2020). Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, education technology was already experiencing strong growth and adoption, with global
investment in education technology reaching US$18.66 billion in 2019 and the total online
education market projected to reach US$350 billion by 2025 (Li & Lalani, 2020). The COVID- 19 pandemic significantly accelerated the development of digital learning and the transformation
of education at various levels (Xie et al., 2020). Equipping students with digital competencies as part of their higher education experience
has empowered their “agency and identity in digital spaces” (Kühn Hildebrandt, 2019, p. 211). DT has been implemented in higher education institutions (HEIs) through multiple dimensions:
teaching, infrastructure, curriculum, administration, research, business process, human resource, extension, DT governance, information, and marketing (Benavides et al., 2020). Many
universities have developed and continue to reimagine specific digital strategies in reaction to the

17
massive shift towards using new technology. Yet, the lack of the vision, capability, or
commitment to implement them effectively, which requires an integral and holistic
transformation of the HEIs, is common (Benavides et al., 2020). It is also reported that although
policies and initiatives have been proposed to address educational technology innovations, both
teachers and students still use a limited number of digital technologies for predominantly
assimilative tasks in daily reality. In terms of university teachers’ perspectives, additional
technical as well as pedagogical guidance is required (Bond et al., 2018). While the use of digital technology in an educational context has rapidly expanded, the DT
of education is a long and gradual process. The process of transformation from Education 1.0 to
Education 4.0 is depicted by a number of studies (Fayda-Kinik, 2022; Hong & Ma, 2020). Education 1.0 happened from the 1960s to the 1990s, a time that was characterized by a
traditional teacher-centered system when technology was not used in the classrooms. In
Education 2.0, during the period 2000-2010, Web 2.0 technologies appeared, and technology and
social networking were adopted in teaching and learning. Meanwhile, the roles of teachers and
students changed from teacher-centered to student-centered. When it came to Education 3.0 in
the 2010s, the student-centered approach was dominant in the classroom, and virtual learning
appeared following the popularity of MOOCs (Hong & Ma, 2020). Education 4.0 refers to the
period where digital transformation with all forms of automation is used for educational purposes
(Hong & Ma, 2020), with the aim of equipping students with 21st-century skills. According to the extant literature, innovations in digital teaching are not just technical
innovations but rather academic, curricular, organizational, and structural innovations (Kühn
Hildebrand, 2019). This view is in line with the framework of Digital Transformation proposed
earlier by Vial (2019), highlighting the strategic alignment and restructuring of the organizations

18
in DT. Effective DT-related changes in an education context requires policymakers and school
leaders to develop a systematic, coherent, actionable, and well-communicated implementation
strategy. This strategy should engage stakeholders early and consider the environmental context
during the policy design process (OECD, 2020). The OECD framework for education policy
implementation introduced three key dimensions for ensuring policies effectively translate into
classroom actions. First, Smart Policy Design: clear vision, appropriate tools, and sufficient
resources should be included in this dimension. Second, Inclusive Stakeholder Engagement:
early and ongoing engagement with effective communication are crucial for any educational
transformation. Third, Conducive Environment: supportive governance structures and
complementary policies are easy to be neglected in practice but are actually essential (OECD, 2020). Moreover, research on guidelines or standards for successful DT implementation at
different education levels and in different cultural contexts should also be investigated
systematically. Digital Transformation of Teacher Education
With the global education system changing rapidly with the advent of the Education 4.0 era, teacher education is no exception. Since teachers are the ones who directly interact with students
and are the vehicle through which any educational philosophy, educational change, and
curriculum is delivered, the quality of teacher education is a critical factor in determining the
quality of education in future society (Shurygin et al., 2022). As presented by Efimov and Lapteva (2018), teachers must have the appropriate skills and
knowledge to pass on the relevant knowledge and skills needed in the 21st century to younger
generations. Meanwhile, increased student enrollment in online courses has created an urgent
need for teachers with adequate preparation in online teaching. As online learning grows in

19
popularity in K-12 contexts, teacher preparation programs need to closely examine how digital
modes of program delivery could be used to enhance pedagogical knowledge, skills, and
dispositions from candidates’ online preparation experiences in technology-mediated licensure
programs (Bakia et al., 2012; Heafner, 2022). Moreover, the global pandemic that forced school
shutdowns also required broad and rapid changes to teacher preparation programs that moved
online and required trainee teachers to have virtual field experience or online practicum (Afonso
et al., 2022; Mohebi & Meda, 2021). Driven by Educational 4.0 and COVID-19, cultivating digital teachers with the required
qualifications has become an essential rather than an optional endeavor (Fayda-Kinik, 2022). The
digital teacher is described as a teacher “who is proficient in technological competencies and
pedagogy appropriate to their field of expertise” (Fayda-Kinik, 2022, p.32). Three types of
competencies in teachers are emphasized in this definition: technology, pedagogy, and content. To become competent digital teachers, pre-service and in-service teachers should be trained from
a technology, pedagogy, and content perspective, as synthesized in Mishra and Koehler’s (2006)
Technology, Pedagogy Content Knowledge (TPACK) framework. TPACK, as a technologyintegrated pedagogy, conceptualizes three significant aspects of knowledge that teachers should
possess, including intersections of these domains, such as technology pedagogical knowledge
(TPK), technology content knowledge (TCK), and pedagogical content knowledge (PCK). This
theoretical framework provides a solid foundation for curriculum and instructional design for
teacher education programs in the DT process. However, while the DT of teacher education has become an ongoing need related to the
effectiveness or outcomes of teacher education programs, concerns exist. Colleges of education
question the validity and reliability of online programs to prepare teachers for adequate

20
professional knowledge, skills, and dispositions compared to long-standing Face-to-Face (F2F)
programs (Heafner, 2022). It is reported that many supervisors in teacher education programs
contend that the relational aspects of traditional F2F clinical observations and university
supervision cannot be successfully replicated in online teacher training (Heafner, 2022). Similarly, a survey conducted by the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities – Sloan
National Commission on online learning revealed that 70% of 10,000 faculty members believed
that online courses are “inferior” or “somewhat inferior” when compared to traditional F2F
courses (Parry, 2009). Ward et al. (2010) further examined the student and faculty perceptions of
the quality of online learning experiences. The result showed that both students and faculty
viewed synchronous interactive online instruction favorably, while asynchronous interactions
were not as effective as F2F coursework. Nevertheless, some studies challenge these perceptions and offer empirical evidence of
similar learning outcomes across delivery modes for teacher preparation (Heafner & Petty, 2016;
Mollenkopf et al., 2017; Heafner, 2022). Heafner (2022) used a widely accepted, national
measure of teacher readiness and the quality of teacher preparation, Teacher Performance
Assessment (edTPA), to compare F2F or 100% online graduate educator preparation outcomes
spanning three and one-half years at a large urban university in the Southern region of the U.S. The results revealed that online candidates could learn and effectively execute most of all
teaching skills measured on edTPA compared to F2F program completers. This suggested that
online educator preparation programs could effectively develop planning and assessment
knowledge, skills, and dispositions. Nevertheless, it should also be emphasized that data
collection of this study was completed in the semester prior to the abrupt shift to virtual

21
education during the pandemic shutdown. Therefore, results offer fodder to counter the emergent
quality and rigor questions associated with emergency remote teaching (Jaggars et al., 2020). With forethought and purposeful programmatic planning, virtual educator preparation does
hold promise when implemented (Heafner, 2022). But, the existing literature on online teacher
education programs is still relatively sparse, especially when it comes to young children’s
education in their early years (Li et al. 2022), and research on the status and outcomes of DT of
teacher education programs in different cultural and economic contexts remains in need of
sustained attention and investigation. Pre-Service Teacher Education in China
In China, teacher education is seen as a critical force in modernizing education and
promoting social progress, occupying an important place in national development strategies
(Wang & Lin, 2021). The idea of respecting teachers has always remained the same for
thousands of years in Chinese culture and society, rooted in Confucianism. Therefore, teachers
have had an irreplaceable and essential role in education development in China. Teachers in
China are expected to play a crucial role in the state to achieve China’s national educational
goals (Song & Han, 1998; Huo, 2018). Therefore, echoing the rapid and profound social- economic changes in Chinese society, the past decades have witnessed dramatic change and
reforms in the Chinese teacher education system and relentless efforts of the government, policymakers, and teacher educators on improving pre-service teacher education-related policies
and constructing teacher preparation programs that aim to meet students’ dynamic learning needs
and adapt to the evolving social and political needs. These frequent, dramatic changes and
transformations that have occurred in less than a century have simultaneously created ongoing

22
new challenges and issues for teacher education practice in China (Qu & Hao, 2016; Jiang et at, 2017; Huo, 2018). In the reform of teacher education at all school levels, pre-service education for preschool
teachers has received much attention in recent years. The country is focused on the huge
potential positive social effects that investment in early childhood education may bring to society
and the importance of early childhood education as a livelihood project. As such, early childhood
teacher education in China is receiving unprecedented attention and experiencing the inevitable
transformation in the digital age in recent years (Feng et al., 2017; Jiang et al., 2017; Ji, 2021). History of Pre-Service Teacher Education in China
The development of pre-service teacher education in China is closely related to the centurylong development of the holistic teacher education system in China (Huo, 2018). In general, China has a unique system of teacher education called “Shi Fan,” which refers to professional
education for teacher training. The English translation of “Shi Fan” is “teacher model” or “normal education” (Zhu & Han, 2006). While some university-level institutions are
comprehensive, most college-level “Shi Fan” are independent colleges that have served only for
pre-service teachers’ preparation since the beginning of the 20th century. In 2001, the Decision
of the State Council on the Reform and Development of Basic Education was promulgated by the
Ministry of Education, introducing the term “teacher education” for the first time, thus replacing
the long-used concept of “normal education” in China’s academic discourse and various policy
documents. It consequently shifted the national teacher education system’s focus from pre- service teacher education to integrating pre-service and post-service teacher education together. Teacher education’s unity, continuity, and lifelong nature have been emphasized since then (Huo, 2018). Because this study focuses on the formal school system-based pre-service teacher

23
education that students receive before entering their work roles as teachers, it is worthwhile to
mention that many teacher education institutions at the college level run by local governments
which prepare future teachers are still called “Shi Fan Zhuan Ke” for historical reasons. After founding the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in 1949, the State Council issued the
Decision on Reforming the School System to clarify the new school system in October 1951. According to this school system, teacher education institutions were divided into two categories:
secondary teacher education and higher teacher education. And based on experience from the
French and the former Soviet Union’s teacher education system, these two categories of teacher
preparation institutions formed a hierarchical three-level system, which consists of normal
schools (secondary teacher education), normal colleges, and normal universities. Basically, a
normal school is a 3-year secondary teacher education institution that enrolls junior high school
graduates. After completing the 3-year program at a normal school, individuals are considered
qualified preschool or primary school teachers and hold a diploma equivalent to a high school
graduation. Normal colleges usually offer three years of training for high school graduates or two
years of top-up courses for those who hold a normal school diploma. Graduates of normal
colleges hold the equivalent of an associate’s degree. When the top-up program is completed, the
normal school diploma can also be updated to an associate’s degree. The highest level of teacher
education in China is conducted by normal universities. They offer a 4-year bachelor’s degree
for high school graduates and a 2-year top-up program for normal college graduates who already
hold an associate’s degree (Huo, 2018; Zhang, 2016; Zhu & Han, 2006). During the decade of the “Cultural Revolution,” China’s teacher education was in a state of
extreme atrophy, resulting in a severe shortage of teachers. For example, from 1965 to 1977, the
number of primary and secondary school students increased by about 90 million, and the number

24
of teachers should have increased by about 4 million. However, in reality, “the number of
teachers increased during this period was approximately 1 million, accounting for only 25% of
the expected increase” (Jin, 2002, p.152). Along with the reform and opening up policy carried out, the Chinese government’s socio- economic and educational innovations and restructuring have also brought new life to the
development of the teacher education system. According to systematic reviews of related
government policies and reform initiatives in various types of teacher training institutions for the
past half-century, researchers have asserted that pre-service teacher education reform in China
has gone through four main stages in general, emphasizing reconstruction, improvement, transformation, and innovation, which reflected the resonance of the teacher education system to
the developing needs of society in different times (Qu & Hao, 2016; Zhang, 2016; Huo, 2018). Stage 1: Recovery period (1978-1985). Faced with the situation of China's teaching force
shortage and the chaos of teacher education at that time, the Chinese Ministry of Education
issued the Opinions on Strengthening and Developing Teacher Education in October 1978, stating that the establishment of a professional teaching force is a hundred-year plan for
developing education and improving the quality of education. In the meantime, the Third Plenary
Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the PRC launched the teacher education reform as
a national-level strategic reform, aiming to train enough qualified teachers for primary education
in the short run. Thus, during this period, the reform focused on the restoration of pre-service
teacher training institutions and the establishment of unified standards to recruit students for all
types of targeted training programs. For example, in 1978 alone, 77 teacher training colleges
were restored. The government took direct control over the specific subject settings, personnel,

25
enrollment, curricula, graduate assignments, and finances of teacher training colleges and
universities at all levels (Qu & Hao, 2016). Nevertheless, although such uniform standards and the highly-controlled system did help to
spur the increased number of new teachers in a short period, they also limited the complete
fulfillment of the teacher training colleges’ educational function and potential. In general, they
produced a unified form of teachers with low quality, failed to meet society's various demands, and were seen as a waste of public resources (Qu & Hao, 2016; Zhang, 2016; Huo, 2018). Stage 2: Completion Period (1985-1995). The improvement and standardization of pre- service teacher education were the main rhythms of this development period. In May 1985, the
State Council announced the Decision of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of
China on the Reform of the Education System, proposing to expand the autonomy of HEIs. This
policy marked the beginning of China's holistic education system reform (Huo, 2018). Immediately after that, the National Education Commission issued the Opinions on
Strengthening and Developing Teacher Education in March 1986, which required that teacher
education reform be oriented toward modernization and meet future talent needs. The Opinions
called for the management system, teaching methods, and contents to be systematically reformed. Since then, a large number of documents, programs, and regulations have been issued one after
another to emphasize the vital role and responsibilities of teachers and to guide local
governments, secondary schools, and colleges to carry out administrative and teaching reforms, aiming to put China's pre-service teacher education on the track of standardization and
legalization. Stage 3: Transformation Period (1996-2006). During this period, the theme of the
development of pre-service teacher education in China was to achieve high-quality teacher

26
training through higher-level education and to move from a closed and single-teacher education
system to an open and diversified teacher education system to ensure that more students have
access to teacher education and continuously strengthen the number of teachers, especially in
rural areas. As a result, secondary teacher training schools were decreased intentionally to realize
the transformation for higher level teacher education (Qu & Hao, 2016). In September 1996, the State Education Commission issued the Opinions on the Reform and
Development of Teacher Education. The announcement of this document broke the single closed
pattern of pre-service teacher education in China, which only relied on the three tiers of
independent teacher training institutions. Instead, the joint participation of comprehensive
universities was encouraged, and in-service teacher training became part of the responsibilities of
universities and teacher education colleges, which were only responsible for pre-service teacher
training previously. China’s teacher education system has moved from a closed to an open and
pluralistic one after that (Wang & Lin, 2021). In March 1999, to achieve the goal of optimizing the teaching force, the Ministry of
Education issued Several Opinions on the Restructuring of the Layout of Normal Schools, requiring a group of high-level comprehensive universities to open pre-service and in-service
primary and secondary teacher education programs to ensure a higher level and quality teacher
training. The Ministry of Education further transformed the three-level system of pre-service
education into a two-level one (college level and university level), and normal schools were
either closed or upgraded to normal colleges. As of 2005, 207 comprehensive non-teacher
training HEIs participated in pre-service teacher training. They trained 35% of the total number
of graduates nationwide. In contrast, the number of secondary normal schools decreased from

27
893 in 1996 to 199 in 2006 (Zhu & Hu, 2009, p.112). The structure and layout of the teacher
education system in China underwent a fundamental transformation during this period. Stage 4: Innovation period (2007-Present). This stage has focused on better-enabling
teacher education to serve educational equity and higher quality education to respond to the
needs of a rapidly developing economy and society for human resources. The further reform of
Chinese teacher education during this period has been carried out in three main areas. First, developing the rural teaching force and promoting educational equity. Hence, the Free Teacher
Education Policy (FTEP) was initiated in 2007 in response to concerns about university tuition
increases and teacher shortages in rural provinces. It offers free tuition at six leading normal
universities to teach candidates from rural provinces in exchange for their commitment to
teaching for ten years in their provinces of origin (Qian et al., 2020). Second, developing
curriculum standards for teacher education at the national level. In October 2011, the Ministry of
Education enacted the Teacher Education Curriculum Standards (for Trial Implementation), which stated that basic public courses, subject-specific courses, and teacher education courses for
teacher education majors should be set scientifically, with close integration of theory and
educational practice, asking that no less than one semester of educational practicum-related
courses should be provided for students. Third, the Ministry of Education further standardized
the application requirements, test content, and administration of teacher licenses (Huo, 2018;
Zhang, 2022). Implementing the above policies and measures has contributed to developing and improving
teacher education in China. And, in the face of the changing dynamic of teaching and learning
worldwide, the Chinese government's quest to build an exceptional teaching force has been
ongoing. For example, in 2018, the Ministry of Education announced the Opinions of the State

28
Council of the CPC Central Committee on Comprehensively Deepening the Reform of the
Teacher Corps in the New Era. It sets the goal that by 2035, the overall quality, professionalism, and innovation of teachers in China will be significantly improved, and millions of backbone
teachers, hundreds of thousands of outstanding teachers, and tens of thousands of expert-type
teachers will be cultivated. Policies and programs on topics such as informatization of teacher
education in China and innovation in higher education in the Internet era have followed this. As Wang and Lin (2021) pointed out after systematically scrutinizing the Work Points of the
Ministry of Education (1987-2019), during the past three decades, the quality of teacher
education has been paid continuous attention with many supporting policies and financial
resources and education equity emphasized increasingly in China. In sum, the reform of pre- service teacher education in China has gone through a journey full of ups and downs since the
late 1970s. Numerous state policies have shared a common goal of improving the overall
capacity of the teacher education system to support educational reform. Some main trends along
the journey have included the emphasis on pre-service teachers’ practicum, structural changes, and, increasingly, an emphasis on the integration of technology (Huo, 2018; Qu & Hao, 2016;
Wang & Lin, 2021; Ye et al., 2019; Zhang, 2022). First, a practice-oriented teacher education curriculum is emphasized for pre-service
teachers. In China, although the teacher education curriculum has been optimized according to
the ongoing education reform, for a long-time, it still remained dominated by heavy academic
coursework and divorced from the reality of the school and classroom. Teaching practicum, an
essential component of the teacher education curriculum, was ironically neglected in teacher
preparation (Ye et al., 2019). To address this issue, the central government introduced uniform
standard guidelines for teacher preparation and in-service training at the system level. At least

29
six months of educational practice for teacher trainees was added and required (Ministry of
Education [MOE], 2011). Furthermore, as stated in the Implementation Plan to Deepen the
Reform of "Dual-Teacher" Team Construction in Vocational Education in The New Era, which
the Ministry of Education announced in 2019, China is making significant efforts to build a
cooperating pre-service teacher training mechanism that the government manages but is deeply
integrated with industry, enterprises, and institutions. This is intended to improve the teacher
training system for secondary and higher vocational education on pre-service teachers’ practical
professional competencies and to open up a two-way flow channel for school and enterprise
personnel. Second, structural changes through upgrading, merging, and eliminating secondary and
unqualified institutions are ongoing to improve the quality of teacher education. There is an
ongoing effort to upgrade the academic qualifications of teachers, particularly for those serving
in preschools and primary schools. The government’s strategy has been to elevate the basic
qualifications of primary teachers from senior secondary to tertiary sub-degree or college level. The academic backgrounds of new primary teachers are rising significantly, from predominantly
secondary education to a situation where college, bachelor's, and even graduate degrees are the
main components of teacher education (Qu & Hao, 2016; Ye et al., 2019). Correspondingly, the
requirements for in-service back-bone teacher education are also changing from "emphasis on
technical skills development" to "research-oriented personnel" (Qu & Hao, 2016. p.78). Third, in the digital age, Chinese teacher education has also responded positively to
increasing technological changes, emphasizing the integration of technology and education
(Dong & Mertala, 2021; Xing & Feng, 2018). Since 2018, the Ministry of Education has
required teacher education institutions at all levels to actively promote the integration of new

30
technologies such as artificial intelligence, big data, and fifth-generation mobile communication
technology (5G) with the construction of the teaching force, to create a high-level professional
and innovative teaching force, and to support China’s education modernization. In addition, teachers are encouraged to take the initiative to adapt to new technological changes, such as
information technology and artificial intelligence, to actively and effectively carry out teaching
(MOE, 2018). Early Childhood Pre-Service Teacher Education in China
Due to the lack of policy attention and the very limited investment of social resources, early
childhood education (ECE) in China was once considered the weakest “shortcoming” in the
Chinese education system (Feng, 2017). However, since the enactment of the “reform and
opening-up policy” in the 1980s, the rapid development of China’s economy and the
implementation of social reforms have boosted notable increases in China’s ECE participation
(Jiang et al. 2017), with enrolment rates in preschools increasing from less than 30% in 1991 to
over 88 % in 2021 (Feng, 2017; MOE, 2022). Thus, China currently operates the world’s most
extensive ECE education system (MOE, 2022), with 46.27 million children ranging in age from
3 to 6 years enrolled in 0.29 million preschools and supported by 3.24 million teachers (MOE, 2023). Preschool teacher education in China has also undergone tremendous expansion and
challenges in the 70 years since the founding of the PRC. Developmental Characteristics of Early Childhood Pre-Service Teacher Education in China
In many countries, ECE is the most expansive concept that covers ages zero to eight, with a
marked differentiation between preschool education (for three and four-year-olds) and
kindergarten education (grade K in the K-12 education system). Nevertheless, for China and
most East Asian countries, the first year of formal school is grade one rather than kindergarten,

31
with preschools serving children aged three to six (i.e., ages three, four, and five). And the term
“kindergarten” is often used by Chinese scholars to refer to the preschool education institutions
serving this population when translating their work into English, which is the same as the term
“kindergarten” in the American context (Gong & Wang, 2017). Since the Chinese government’s
national policy over the past 20 years has called for universal preschool education (ages three, four, and five) and has begun to encourage childcare services for children under the age of three
to cope with the increasing aging of society, teacher preparation programs in this field have
largely included both preschool teachers’ and infant-toddler teachers’ training courses. As such, this study uses “Early Childhood Pre-service Teacher” to refer to student-teachers who are
professionally trained in formal teacher preparation programs before entering the workforce to
serve children aged zero-six years. After the first preschool opened in Hubei province in 1903, the Presented School
Regulation and the Female Normal School Regulation promulgated in 1904 and 1907, respectively, marked the establishment of institutionalized early childhood teacher education in
China. After the establishment of the PRC in 1949, as described in the previous section, the
modern pre-service teacher education in China formed a hierarchical three-level system, which
consists of normal schools (secondary teacher education), normal colleges, and normal
universities. During the Cultural Revolution from 1966 to 1976, China’s teacher education system was
extremely damaged. But after the reform and opening-up policy in 1979, the Chinese
government began to restore the three-tier teacher education system. As to the cultivation of
quality preschool teachers, every province was required to organize a model normal school and
to direct each subordinate county’s early normal school to train preschool teachers (Hu & Hu,

32
2018). Thus, during the period from 1980 to 1999, secondary normal schools were the mainstay
of exporting preschool teachers nationwide. In general, the two decades right after the opening- up policy in China witnessed a few remarkable developments in the ECE field, which included
the enactment of laws, the increase in preschool participation, an emphasis on providing quality
ECE, an increase in the quality and quantity of kindergarten teachers, and the burgeoning of
research in ECE in China (Feng, 2017). To further improve the quality of teacher education, in March 1999, the enactment of
Several Opinions on the Restructuring of the Layout of Normal Schools announced the transition
of China’s teacher education system from a three-tier system to a two-tier system in the form of a
state document. As a result, a large number of normal schools “disappeared” in order to upgrade
the overall qualifications of the preschool teacher workforce, while many new teacher training
colleges were established. For instance, in 1985, only five normal universities offered Bachelor
of Education (BCE) programs. However, by 1990, there were 17 normal universities offering
Bachelor of Education (ECE) programs. In 2008, there were 128 normal universities and 389
teacher training colleges offering pre-service teacher education programs (Jiang et al., 2017). However, unlike developed countries in Europe and North America, the majority of
preschool teachers are still graduates from normal schools or colleges and do not have a
bachelor’s degree in China (Gong & Wang, 2017; Jiang et al., 2017). Statistics from the Ministry
of Education in China (MOE, 2020) show that in 2020, teachers with associate bachelor degrees
(graduated from college-level institutions) counted for 57.8% of the full-time teachers working
in preschools. Only 25.7% of full-time teachers had acquired bachelor’s degrees or above in this
field (MOE, 2020). Compared to 2014, these two figures were 53.7% and 18.3%, respectively. It
is evident that currently, teachers with college degrees have become the main constituent of

33
China's early childhood teaching force instead of teachers who graduated from secondary normal
school with high school diplomas. Further, the Chinese government's efforts to improve the
professional qualifications of early childhood teachers in recent years are beginning to bear fruit. A watershed moment for early childhood education in China was the adoption of the
Outline of the National Medium- and Long-term Education Reform and Development Plan
(2010-2020) in May 2010, as preschool education was listed for the first time as one of the six
major tasks for educational development (Feng, 2017; Hu & Hu, 2018). This policy emphasized
the nature of preschool education for the public good and clarified the government’s
responsibility in ECE. It announced the goal of providing universal one-year preschool education
nationwide, providing two-years of preschool education in more developed regions, and offering
three-year preschool education in the most developed areas by 2020. This has led to ECE
receiving a high level of government attention in terms of resources, funding, and policies from
that time to the present (Feng, 2017) and brought a large increase in the provision of ECE in
China. During this period, the Chinese government has made significant efforts to improve the
equity and accessibility of early childhood education by increasing the proportion of public
preschools and the number of government-supported "inclusive preschools," as well as by further
strengthening the regulation of private preschools and developing rural preschools. The number of preschools nationwide reached 295,000 in 2021, 128,000 more than in 2011, an increase of 76.8 percent. At the same time, the gross enrollment rate continues to increase
rapidly, and in 2021, the number of children in preschool nationwide reached 48,052,000, an
increase of 13,808,000 over 2011 (MOE, 2022). The national financial expenditure on preschool
education increased from 41.6 billion yuan in 2011 to 253.2 billion yuan in 2020, an increase of
more than five times, and the proportion of financial education expenditure increased from 2.2

34
percent to 5.9 percent (Zhang, 2022). While early childhood education has grown by leaps and
bounds, the lack of qualified preschool teachers has become increasingly severe (Hu & Hu, 2018;
Jiang et al., 2017). With such urgent needs, the scale of early childhood teacher preparation
programs has been expanding dramatically in the past decade (Hu & Hu, 2018; Jiang et al., 2017). In 2021, 1,095 colleges (including non-normal and normal colleges) and universities
offered early childhood education majors, an increase of 591(1.2 times) over 2011. Nevertheless, in 2021, nine central departments, including the Ministry of Education, jointly
released the 14th Five-Year Plan of Action for the development and enhancement of preschool
education, again emphasizing that by 2025, the national preschool three-year gross enrollment
rate will reach over 90%, and the inclusive preschools’ coverage rate will reach over 85%. Based
on this development goal, there is a huge gap in the number of preschool teachers being trained
in China. Challenges of Early Childhood Pre-service Teacher Education in China
The shortage of high-quality preschool teachers is still a severe problem (Jiang et al., 2017;
Ji, 2021). In the 40 years after the reform and opening up, the number of preschool teachers
trained in China increased. Still, the academic qualification level of rural early childhood
teachers is significantly lower than that of urban and county areas, and the professional
competence of rural teachers still needs to be improved (Hu & Hu, 2018). At the same time, in
order to quickly upgrade the academic level of student preparation in the secondary teacher
education system as soon as possible, preschool teacher education institutions at the college level
in various localities aspire to “upgrade” to undergraduate institutions after meeting specific local
requirements. However, research suggests that these institutions may need more time to prepare

35
themselves regarding faculty, curriculum goals, and course content development to ensure the
quality of the students they cultivate (Ji, 2021). There is a gap between the outcomes of pre-service teacher education and the practical
professional competencies students need to master once they enter the kindergarten workplace (Ji, 2021; Yu, 2017). Yu (2017) and Ji (2021) asserted that the main reason for this phenomenon is
the curriculum structure in most ECE pre-service teacher education programs. The lack of
emphasis on effective practicum and targeted induction training is common. Some researchers
have pointed out that pre-service teacher education programs generally tend to emphasize
knowledge but ignore front-line practice. In addition, most preschool education majors have the
problem of a single form and short duration of on-site practicum, such as the form of the
practicum is only on-site observation or scenario discussion, with very limited real interactions
with children and their families (Ji, 2021; Liu, 2017). Such a view is consistent with other
researchers’ analysis of the overall problems of teacher education in China (Ye et al., 2019). Therefore, the emphasis on professional practice skills and improving the quality of the
educational practicum is also one of the priorities that ECE pre-service teacher education needs
to work on. With the global wave of DT and China’s policymakers advocating for teachers to utilize a
wide range of digital tools and pedagogic approaches to support children’s digital learning, how
to cultivate preschool professionals who can respond effectively to the emerging needs is an
urgent issue faced by the early childhood pre-service teacher education (ECPTE) programs (Luo
et al. 2021; Xing et al., 2018; Zhang, 2021). Luo et al.(2021) explored the readiness of early
childhood educators in China to integrate digital resources into their instruction by employing an
integrated approach to synthesize 46 existing studies published between 2012 and early 2020.

36
The sampled studies discussed the perceptions, attitudes, and practices for integrating technology
into early childhood teaching and teacher education throughout Mainland China. However, the
result showed that Chinese early childhood teachers are not quite ready to optimize the
integration of digital tools into their classrooms. Meanwhile, some researchers have argued that
teacher education’s role is vital in fostering technological competencies and confidence in future
early childhood educators (Luo et al., 2021; Zhang, 2021). Educational Digital Transformation: Story in China
Digital transformation marks an unprecedented and essential trend of educational
transformation worldwide (WEF, 2020). The Chinese government has attached great importance
to DT and has responded to it from both political and educational practice perspectives (Huai, 2023). Since the 18th Party Congress in 2012, the Chinese government has been emphasizing the
need to seize the historical opportunity of global digital development and to systematically plan
and coordinate the construction of a digital society (National Internet Information Office, 2022). In 2017, The report of the 19th Party Congress explicitly proposed the national development
goal to build a “Network Power, Digital China, and Smart Society.” The concept “Digital China” was written into the Party and national program documents for the first time, which declared
China’s response to the world’s technological revolution and the development of the digital
economy from the perspective of socioeconomic and political governance at the strategic level. In consequence, many national-level policy documents have been issued, urging different
industries and sectors to accelerate digital transformation. In 2021, as the country’s most central development guidance document, The Outline of the
14th Five-Year Plan and 2035 Vision for National Economic and Social Development of the
People’s Republic of China, was dedicated to “accelerating digital development and building a

37
digital China” (p.39). Echoing this top-level national guidance document, other major strategic
plans were issued one after another, such as The 14th Five-Year National Informationization
Plan (2021) and The 14th Five-Year Plan for the Development of Digital Economy (2022). The
digital infrastructure, digital technology, digital economy, digital government, digital education
and digital society have been solidly promoted by various departments in various regions
(National Internet Information Office, 2022). Deeming digital education as an essential approach to meet the challenges in the
dramatically changing world and anchor a bright future, the construction of digital education in
China has achieved leapfrog development and reached an impressive scale in the last decade
(Huai, 2023). As of the end of 2021, China had built 1.425 million 5G base stations, accounting
for more than 60% of the world’s total number of 5G users, which reached 355 million and
provided a solid infrastructure foundation for the development of digital education. China’s
digital education equipment environment is basically completed. In the same year, 2021, the
campus network access rate of primary and secondary schools reached 100%, and 99.5% of
primary and secondary schools had multimedia classrooms; the number of MOOCs provided by
universities exceeded 64,500, and the number of MOOC learners reached 1.088 billion, ranking
first in the world in terms of construction quantity and application scale (National Internet
Information Office, 2022). Driven by a series of powerful national policies, the DT of education
in China is in full swing. But by its nature, DT is a systematic and rather long evolving process
(Verhoef et al., 2021). DT in Chinese education faces many challenges, especially in tertiary
education, and is where technology integration and teaching in Chinese education first began
(Zhu et al., 2021). Overview of China’s Policy on Digital Transformation in Education

38
Zhu et al. (2021) analyzed the texts related to education informatization and digitization
policies of the Chinese Ministry of Education from 2000 to 2020 through text mining and word
frequency analysis. The results revealed that the number of documents related to “education
informatization” had steadily increased since 2000. Meanwhile, the policies related to
informatization of education at the national level have reflected different development goals and
emphases in different academic periods. These policies include: (1) The priority in primary and
secondary education is to promote educational equity, emphasizing the full use of information
technology to narrow the gap between urban and rural education, promote inclusive education, and help students reduce their academic burdens; (2) the focus in higher education is to guide
universities to advance the use of information technology in the ideological and moral education
of students and in improving students’ professional abilities through developing high-quality
curriculum and educational resource; and (3) vocational and adult education informatization
advocates for the establishment of a lifelong learning society, online practical training and
internship for vocational education, and distance education for some special groups (such as
veterans). The emphasis of technology utilization in vocational education is to drive public social
services for common goods (Han et al., 2022a). In addition to the different focus in different
academic areas, in the past 20 years, there have been some obvious changes in the policy
direction related to modernization, informatization, and digitization of education in China. These
variations have also contributed to the corresponding changes and focus transmission in the
digital transformation of education in China (M. Li et al., 2022; National Internet Information
Office, 2022; Qiao, 2018; Zhu et al., 2021). An obvious policy shift is that policies are transferring from emphasizing infrastructure
construction of education digitalization to the emphasis on quality and management (M. Li et al.,

39
2022; Zhu et al., 2021).The Fourth Session of the Thirteenth National People's Congress voted to
adopt the The Outline of the 14th Five-Year Plan and 2035 Vision for National Economic and
Social Development of the People's Republic of China (2021), which pointed out that China has
entered a phase of "high quality" development (p.3). It stated that building a high-quality
education system will be the main goal of Chinese education from 2021 to 2035. Information and
digital technologies, therefore, need to be further used to improve educational governance
capacity and to achieve DT of education. Based on this, policymakers are beginning to pay more
attention to the development of standards for the digital transformation of education in China. According to the MOE of China website, from 2021 to 2022, there were nine national standards
themed on DT released within less than a year. Standards related to online education security, educational data management, digital literacy, and content review of digital resources are
included, such as national standards for Digital Literacy of Teachers and Cyber security
requirements of online streaming classes platform. At the same time, the Chinese government is
advocating the establishment of an evaluation system for education informatization and
digitization (Zhu et al., 2021). The use of digital technology is also becoming increasingly prominent in promoting the
development and quality of rural education and enhancing educational equity (Qiao, 2018; Wu &
Ding, 2023). According to the results of China's 7th national census released in May 2021, China's rural population was 509.79 million, accounting for 36.11% of the total population
(National Bureau of Statistics [NBS], 2021). Although rural education in China has grown
tremendously in the past decade, the situation remains critical (Qiao, 2018). In 2021, there were
295,000 preschools nationwide, of which the number of rural preschools accounted for 66.21%. In 2021, there were about 12 million rural children left behind in compulsory education,

40
including about 7.8 million in elementary school and 4.2 million in junior high schools, accounting for 7.59% of the total number of students in compulsory education (Wu & Qin, 2022). Therefore, closing the gap between urban and rural education remains a priority for rural
education in China in the national education plan for the next decade (Qiao, 2018). Information
and digital technologies are regarded as significant factors contributing to rural education
development in most of the government’s related policies aiming to boost rural education. Policymakers and administrators assert that the Internet and digital technologies could contribute
to universal access to education, educational equity, high teaching quality, professional
development for teachers, and more efficient educational administration ( Qiao, 2018; Zhang et
al., 2016). As a result, the Chinese government has allocated a substantial amount of money to
update information and communication technology (ICT) facilities in rural schools, update local
networks, and enhance Internet connectivity. In 2015, more than ￥61 billion was invested in
ICT construction in education to improve ICT access (Qiao, 2018). However, even though rural
schools have improved access to ICT, they still lack the educational resources and skills to
operate these facilities. Nationwide, according to statistics in 2021, 63.44% of rural students had
never experienced online teaching before, and nearly 10% of rural students did not participate in
online teaching during the pandemic. Further, 40.44% of rural students felt anxious about online
learning, and only 55.09% of students were satisfied with online teaching during that period (Wu
& Qin, 2022). Even though many ICT training programs have been provided by local
governments and some well-known universities in China, they mainly cover general principles
and do not connect ICT with teaching practices in rural areas (Qiao, 2018). Investigation of the
complexities of integrating ICT into rural education in concrete settings, the mechanism and
obstacles across different developmental stages of rural school education, and more targeted

41
teacher training are advocated by researchers (Qiao, 2018; Wu & Qin, 2022; Wu & Ding, 2023;
Zhu et al., 2021). The development of the construction of high-quality open digital education resources for all
is increasingly being emphasized. The Outline of the National Medium- and Long-term
Education Reform and Development Plan (2010-2020) accelerated the establishment of the open
and flexible public service platform for education resources at the national level, provincial level, and school-level and the promotion of universal sharing of high-quality education resources in
China. The national ICT guideline document China Education Modernization 2035 (The
Communist Party of China Central Committee & The State Council of China, 2019) proposes
that the overall target of China’s Education modernization to 2035 is to “build a modern
education system that serves lifelong learning for all” (p.8). To that end, the government is
devoted to “constructing a learning society where everyone learns, everywhere can learn, and all
the time can learn” (p.9). Thus, the education sector needs to focus on establishing a mechanism
for “sharing and building digital education resources for all” (p.24). As stated in the Report on
China Smart Education (China National Academy of Education Science [CNAES], 2022), smart
education that is powered by digital technology will dissolve the barriers to school education, prompt the combination of various types of education, resources, and elements, encourage the
coordinated efforts of schools, families, and society in talent cultivation, and establish a high- quality personalized lifelong learning system. The construction of high-quality and rich
educational resources for all will merge physical space, social space, and digital space to
innovate education and teaching scenarios. In this context, MOE of China launched the Smart
Education of China (SEC) platform in March 2022, which is a free, comprehensive, and
integrated learning platform open to all. Students can use the SEC platform to learn the

42
curriculum on their own; teachers can use the SEC platform to learn content and access teaching
support resources that have been recognized as national model curricula; and parents can use the
SEC platform to access a wealth of high-quality educational resources to support their children's
learning. Adults can also register for the platform to learn for free from professors at leading
Chinese universities. The first phase of the SEC platform project mainly includes four sub- platforms, including the Platform for Primary and Secondary Schools, for Vocational Education, for Higher Education, and the National Student Employment Service Platform. By January 2023, the platform received a total of 5.87 billion views, serving users from 200 countries and regions. It plays an important role in supporting online teaching and learning for people of all ages and in
bridging the digital gap between rural and urban (China National Academy of Education Science
[CNAES], 2023). The Influence of Digital Transformation on Higher Education in China
The acceleration of digital industrialization and digitization of industries has placed new
demands on the knowledge, skills, and abilities of the global workforce, requiring a proactive
response from higher education (M. Li et al. 2022). As stated by Chinese MOE, DT of higher
education is a major issue that affects or even determines the high-quality development of higher
education, and it is a strategic choice and innovative path to realizing the learning revolution, quality revolution, and high-quality development of higher education (MOE, 2022). The
importance that the Chinese government attaches to DT of higher education has been consistent
since the early 1990s (Xiao, 2019). Developmental Characteristics of Digital Transformation of Higher Education in China
The DT of higher education in China began in the early 1990s, initially with the use of
information technology as a vehicle for disseminating teaching content (Liang & Zhang, 2020).

43
In 1993, the Outline of China's Education Reform and Development, jointly issued by the Central
Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council, pointed out the need to
actively develop radio and television education and electrolyzed education in schools, which
started the process of integrating information technology in Chinese higher education (Liang &
Zhang, 2020; Liu et al., 2019). In 1998, the National People's Congress passed the Law of the People's Republic of China
on Higher Education, further emphasizing the importance of higher education serving the
construction of socialist modernization. Then in late 1998, the Ministry of Education issued the
Action Plan for the Revival of Education in the 21st Century, which began to focus on the
relationship between higher education and information technology development. These two
policies in 1998 really brought “information technology” into the vision of higher education
reform (Liu et al., 2019). Later in 1999, the Decision on Deepening Education Reform and
Comprehensively Promoting Quality Education issued by the Central Committee of the
Communist Party of China and the State Council emphasized the need to "vigorously improve
the level of modernization of education technology and the degree of education information"
(p.3). Since then, the construction of information technology and digital development has
become one of the priorities of China’s higher education reform. The period from 2000 to 2009 was the most rapid expansion and development of higher
education in China (Wang, 2014). It experienced the most rapid and unprecedented expansion of
its higher education system, which boosted its annual undergraduate enrollment from 1 million in
1999 to 9.67 million in 2021. In 1999, the gross enrollment rate in higher education was 10.5%. Comparably, by 2021, this rate had reached 57.8%. As a result, China has built the world's most
extensive higher education system, with a total enrollment of over 44.3 million students (MOE,

44
2022). During this period, informatization in higher education also made rapid progress, which is
mainly demonstrated in the integration of teaching and technology, operation management using
technology in higher education and digital library construction in HEIs (Liang & Zhang, 2020;
Liu et al., 2019). Since 2010, the DT of higher education in China has risen from a subdivision policy in the
field of education to the level of a national strategy (Liang & Zhang, 2020). The Outline of the
National Medium- and Long-term Education Reform and Development Plan (2010-2020)
elevated education informatization to a national strategic level, the quality building of higher
education has been fully launched, and the progress of education informatization has been further
boosted with the power of national investment and policy promotion. Since then, policies to
promote digital transformation and informatization in education have been formulated and issued
jointly by the MOE and various ministries and commissions in China. This underscored the
Chinese government's determination and strength in promoting the digital transformation of
education. Throughout the twenty-year history of digital transformation development in Chinese higher
education, some distinctive features have emerged. First, the central government and the
education administration of each local government play a leading role in facilitating the DT of
higher education in China. Policies and various guiding documents are issued to determine the
corresponding support funding and what will be the phased focus of development at the macro
planning level of the organization (Liu et al., 2019; Zhu et al., 2021). Second, increasing
attention is being paid to improving the information and digital literacy of higher education
personnel. For example, in 2022, the MOE held a special training section on educational digital
capacity enhancement and a special training course on the pilot national smart education

45
platform, in which leaders of departments and bureaus of the MOE and principals from HEIs
attended the special training. Also in November 2022, the MOE issued the education industry
standard Teacher’s Digital Literacy to standardize the training and evaluation of teachers’ digital
literacy. The standard contains five dimensions: digital awareness, digital technology knowledge
and skills, digital application, digital social responsibility, and professional development. Third, policies and researchers are beginning to pay general attention to strengthening the process
management and standard setting of DT (Cheng et al., 2022; Liang & Zhang, 2020; M. Li et al., 2022). For instance, in order to further regulate the teaching management of online open courses
in colleges and universities, the MOE, together with the Central Internet Information Office, the
Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Public Security, and the
General Administration of Market Regulation issued the document Opinions of the Ministry of
Education and Other Five Departments on Strengthening the Teaching Management of Online
Open Courses in Ordinary Colleges and Universities (MOE et al., 2022) This document focuses
on five aspects, including strengthening the main responsibility of colleges and universities, improving the teaching quality of teachers, strictly disciplining students' learning and
examinations, strengthening the supervision and management of platforms, and carrying out joint
governance, to ensure that online teaching and offline teaching are substantially equivalent and
help online education to develop in a stable and high-quality manner. Challenges of Digital Transformation of Higher Education in China
There is tremendous transformative potential in digital technologies for advancing
education and benefiting the common good of society. However, the reality is people have not
yet figured out how to deliver on these many promises (United Nations Educational, Scientific
and Cultural Organization [UNESCO], 2021). The DT of higher education is still unclear, with a

46
lack of consensus among international organizations, governments, universities, and enterprises
about what this should look like, and even contradictions, which affect the effective
implementation of DT in higher education (M. Li et al., 2022). Driven by the booming policies
and research on DT of HEIs, many universities and colleges in China have made great
improvements in digital tools and modern applications after years of transformation and
development. Nevertheless, in the practice of DT in higher education, many Chinese universities
are still in the experimental exploration stage (Liang & Zhang, 2020). Different shareholders
have unclear cognition and lack of consensus about the concept of Digital Transformation. How
exactly should the national macro policy to the specific ground practice of universities be
promoted? How should the various practical problems encountered in the process be solved?
These are still issues that need to be studied urgently. The DT of higher education in China calls for consistent and specific digital transformation
implementation guidelines and strategies based on the actual situation of each local area and
institution (Liang & Zhang, 2020; Miao et al., 2023). All DT in higher education requires
education policies that are tailored to the national context and implementation plans that provide
effective guidance for practical work. However, the policies related to the digital transformation
of education issued by the Chinese government in the past 10 years are mostly based on nationallevel guidance and development goals, and there is a lack of complete, systematic, and concrete
policies to guide the digital transformation of higher education, such as national curriculum or
instructional design and development standards (Liang & Zhang, 2020). According to Miao et al. (2023), only 39.53% of administrators confirmed that their institutions had policies or
regulations for MOOCs and online course development among 50 universities that deployed
online courses. Standards for MOOC course design and development were at the top of their

47
wish list. The lack of consistent standards makes the assessment and accreditation of MOOCs
difficult (Gabi et al. 2016). It also leaves higher education practitioners confused about
implementing digital transformation (Miao et al., 2023). Digital teaching and learning in higher education is student-centered, resource-sharing, and
school-connected. This shift will bring disruptive changes to the traditional university teaching
model and teaching management. As a result, the original teacher-centered, physical campus- based operation and management model of Chinese higher education is undergoing significant
challenges (Chen 2016; M. Li et al., 2022; Wang 2013). Resistance and inertia in teaching and
administration due to a lack of experience and self-confidence are present in both teachers and
administrators (Chen, 2016). These circumstances can create barriers to the changes in learning
outcomes that digital transformation hopes to bring about (Liu et al., 2019). Although almost all
Chinese universities have begun blended learning, flipped classrooms, and catechisms to varying
degrees, driven by macro policy and epidemic reasons in China, studies have found scant
evidence of open, flexible, distributed, and disaggregated learning encouraged in their
development plans (Xiao, 2019). However, these innovative practices can happen through digital
transformation. In addition, inadequate digital literacy and digital teaching capacities of higher education
faculty have become a limiting factor that hinders successful DT in HEIs (Cheng et al., 2022;
Han et al., 2022). As claimed by some researchers, the ultimate point of carrying out DT in
higher education is people, and improving the digital literacy of teachers and students in
university education is the guarantee that the work can move toward sustainable development
(Miao et al., 2023). Based on a survey conducted by Miao et al. (2023), faculty from 50 top
research universities and colleges in China made technical training their top need on the wish list

48
for MOOC support. University faculty's digital literacy, digital teaching skills, and innovation
are still shortcomings that need urgent focus and strengthening (Han et al., 2022; Liu et al., 2019;
M. Li et al., 2022; Miao et al., 2023). In sum, advancing DT in higher education is a systemic project involving multiple
stakeholders and factors inside and outside higher education institutions; at the same time, such
transformation is also a long-term and gradual process. Therefore, it inevitably faces many
challenges and requires all higher education stakeholders’ joint efforts and systematic
advancement in China. This is particularly true in the area of digital transformation in pre-service
teacher education, and especially in the field of early childhood, which has generally received
less attention. Practice of Digital Transformation in Pre-Service Teacher Education
As previously discussed, the DT of teacher education had been initiated before the outbreak
of Covid-19 because of the 21st-century talent competency needs driven by Industry 4.0 and the
boom of Education 4.0 (Fayda-Kinik, 2022; Kühn Hildebrandt, 2019). The global school
lockdown due to the pandemic made distance education ubiquitous as a result (Kim, 2020). According to statistics from the United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF), by
March 2022, 147 million students had missed more than half of their in-person schooling over
the past two years (UNICEF, 2022). Consequently, the mode of delivering pre-service teacher
education has been shifted dramatically from face-to-face to online (K. Li, et al. 2022; Mohebi &
Meda, 2021). Although synchronous, face-to-face online education is no longer a novel concept in
education, transforming both coursework and practicum into virtual mode presented many
unexpected challenges and difficulties, particularly for the pre-service teacher education practice,

49
especially in the field of early childhood. Because it is largely based on face-to-face interactions
between teachers and young children, classroom observation and field-based coursework require
the integration of teaching into real classrooms (K. Li, et al. 2022; Timmons et al., 2021;
Yamamura & Tsustsui, 2021). Lessons of DT Implementation in Pre-Service Teacher Education
DT is a gradual process, and too rapid a change can lead to unprepared chaos and
inefficiency. The sudden paradigm shift in pre-service teacher education delivery mode caught
many teacher education programs off guard (K. Li et al. 2022). It was reported commonly that
teacher education programs had too little time to prepare to provide the e-infrastructures, technical, pedagogical support, and online teaching environment teachers needed. Most teacher
education programs were not ready for this sudden and large-scale shift both in terms of
experience and human resources (Crawford et al., 2020) Many teacher educators had not
received systematic and formal training in online teaching, with students who had no experience
in systematic online learning, especially in developing countries (Ogbonnaya et al., 2020; Scull
et al., 2020). Faculty and student-teachers reported that they had challenges with the technology
or devices used for online learning (Ogbonnaya et al., 2020). Most universities that did switch
engaged in a mere shift online and not particularly to strategic online teaching (Crawford et al., 2020).The learning characteristics of early childhood also place additional demands on the digital
transformation of ECPTE teacher preparation (K. Li et al., 2022; Mohebi & Meda, 2021). Unlike
adult learners, preschool children develop their cognitive and executive functioning skills
through personal interactions and hands-on activities with teachers and peers (Dong et al., 2020;
Hamre, 2014). As stated by the National Association for the Education of Young Children,

50
according to young children’s developmental characteristics and play-based learning needs, digital content should be designed to facilitate active and creative use by young children and to
encourage social engagement with other children and adults. In addition, because of the limited
digital technology application skills, parents’ facilitation is particularly important for online
course learning. Therefore, pre-service preschool teachers must learn and practice integrating
their digital skills and competencies with pedagogical content knowledge for early childhood
education to meet young children’s play-and inquiry-based educational needs and build quality
interactions with their families (Ogbonnaya et al., 2020; Pourdavood & Song, 2021). These
characteristics of early childhood learning urgently require ECPTE programs to redesign their
curricula in a targeted manner and explore innovative delivery models. However, studies on the experience of online teaching in ECPTE programs during the
pandemic proved that both teacher educators and pre-service teachers were not ready for such a
sudden transformation. Pre-service teachers reported struggles with online classroom
management tasks and challenges in working reasonably with children's families virtually
(Mohibe & Meda, 2021; Ogbonnaya et al., 2020), such as maintaining children’s active
engagement and identifying appropriate times to scaffold their learning (Jin, 2023; Mohebi &
Meda, 2021). In addition, they had difficulty remaining flexible and responsive in their online
practicums and therefore failed to cater to children’s individual needs in the class. In DT of pre-service teacher education, the implementation of online practicum faces many
difficulties and challenges. A variety of terms is used to refer to practicum, including practice
teaching, field experience, apprenticeship, practical experience, and internship. All relate to a
field-based experience that provides pre-service students with real teaching experience where
they learn how to interact with actual learners (Pratiw, 2020) and practicum is considered an

51
essential section for cultivating qualified future teachers (Jin, 2022; Pratiw, 2020). Acquirement
of authentic, hands-on experience in the classroom is the main objective of practicum in teacher
education (Jin, 2022; Kim, 2020). As proposed by NAEYC in Professional Standards and
Competencies for Early Childhood Educators, practicums in early childhood are conducted with
guidance from a skilled mentor, coach, or early childhood instructor, including field observations, fieldwork, and student teaching or other learning experience take place in an early learning
education setting. It supports the trainee teachers to develop understanding, competence, and
dispositions in a specialized area and to apply their knowledge about children’s development as
well as about curriculum content (Li et al., 2022; NAEYC, 2019). In the field of early childhood education, trainee teachers observe children, analyze and
understand children's behavior through practicums and field observations, and apply their
teaching strategies in real-world interactions with children to get feedback, but online practicum
has limitations in this area (K. Li et al., 2022). Also, especially for preschoolers, who do not have
the same self-discipline as K-12-year-olds who are able to follow the teacher’s directions
through the screen for long periods of time, there is a greater need for trainee teachers' online
classroom management skills. This means online teaching requires more experience and skills if
better results are to be achieved (Pourdavood & Song, 2022). However, pre-service teachers are
still in the process of learning how to teach. As reported by Mohebi and Meda (2021), pre- service teachers struggled with online classroom management tasks during their online field
practice, such as maintaining children’s active engagement and identifying appropriate times to
scaffold their learning (Jin, 2023; Mohebi & Meda, 2021). Similarly, in Romania, early
childhood trainee teachers faced challenges related to delivering content online using interactive
means with young children (Miulesco, 2020). In addition, Callaway-Cole and Kimble (2021)

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mentioned that pre-service teachers had difficulty remaining flexible and responsive in their
online practicums and therefore failed to create inclusive and individualized experiences for the
children in the class. Some scholars have argued that online practicum has been proven as an achievement
milestone for pre-service teachers in terms of integrating technology into the teacher preparation
program (Mohebi & Meda, 2021). With an intentional plan and design considerations, online
educator preparation programs with virtual field experience can as effectively develop planning
and assessment knowledge and teaching skills for pre-service teachers as face-to-face programs
(Heafner, 2022). In addition, they can provide trainee teachers opportunities to encourage
reflection on how best to promote children’s development and learning with online
communication tools and to learn through their direct teaching experience and by observing
others’ teaching with technology’s help (Kim, 2020). At the same time, according to an analysis
of six peer-reviewed empirical studies discussing online fieldwork or practicum, K. Li et al. (2022) found that although both challenges and opportunities were covered in this research, in
summary, the challenges of an online practicum outweighed any opportunities it presented under
contemporary teacher-training models. Promising Practices of Digital Transformation in Pre-Service Teacher Education
Despite the challenges, teacher educators in various countries have explored and innovated
various ways to meet the needs of student teachers in the context of DT. A range of innovative
practices that are inspiring for DT in pre-service teacher education has been developed and
discussed (Kim, 2020; Mphahlele & Jikpamu, 2021; Ogbonnaya et al., 2020; Scull et al., 2020). Enhancing online learning engagement is considered a key to shaping student-teachers’ positive learning outcomes. Scull et al. (2020) explored contributing factors to high levels of

53
student satisfaction in their overall online learning experience from an Australian university’s
online teaching practice. Based on data from this study together with extant literature, the study
formed a framework of three essential elements for pre-service teacher education programs and
teacher educators to improve online engagement: access, participation, and engagement (Scull et
al., 2020). Access is reflected “not only in the way the content is designed and delivered but also in the
flexible approach used throughout the course” to support student interaction (Scull et al., 2020, p. 500). Therefore, teacher educators are suggested to understand student teachers’ functional
digital skills and competencies in advance to develop nuanced understandings of their
willingness to engage in various forms of interaction and provide individual support. With the
recognition of the differences between online and face-to-face learning, redesigning of the course
content and delivery approach were proved necessary for better learning results. For example, teacher educators turned the scheduled three-hour face-to-face workshop into smaller, discrete
online activities; and students’ reflective activities were completed on Moodle. Meanwhile, for
Participation, researchers emphasized two actionable factors for teacher educators to implement. On the one hand, building pedagogical relationships between staff and students to encourage a
culture of help-seeking and modeling effective online study habits is important. Teachers and
students need to establish ground rules and understand the different forms of support that can be
provided beyond the basic pedagogical aspects in order to successfully negotiate online learning
(Koc & Liu, 2016; Scull et al., 2020 ). On the other hand, teacher educators are suggested to set
clear expectations about online learning for student teachers. Although online learning
encourages the autonomy of students, many of them may not understand what this means
(Barbour, 2015; Michinov et al., 2011). Therefore, students’ autonomous learning behavior

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needs to be modeled, and mechanisms should be put in place to help when motivation inevitably
fails (Scull et al., 2020). Furthermore, for Engagement, researchers mentioned the “sense of
isolation” or “less connected” of students during the pandemic and different learning paces of
learning when compared with offline classes. Therefore, teacher educators need to give special
consideration to strengthening students’ intellectual and emotional engagement, adjusting their
expectations for students’ learning progress, and providing timely and constructive feedback on
students’ learning (Scull et al., 2020). Well-designed online practicums that involved adequate communication, observation
opportunities, and reflection allowed the online practicums to provide student teachers with more
opportunities to practice teaching young children in the digital age (Kim, 2020). Kim (2020)
redesigned the practicum for early childhood pre-service teachers during the pandemic and
reported the experiences and reflections from this practicum course offered in the Spring
Semester of 2020 in the United States. This research introduced three phases of the online
student teachers’ experiences in practicum, which are Preparation, Implementation, and
Reflection. It revealed that through intentional redesign and reflection, online teaching
experiences could provide pre-service teachers with opportunities to interact with young children
that turned out smoothly, as well as encourage reflection on how to effectively promote
children’s development and learning with online communication tools (Kim, 2020). The study
pointed out that there are a number of key factors to ensure effective online practicums. First, instructors should prepare student teachers for online teaching in advance, including
familiarizing students with various online teaching and communication tools, self-reflecting on
which ones are more appropriate for them, and demonstrating to students how to make online
teaching more hands-on and interactive. Second, good communication among student teachers

55
with their peers, young children’s families, and the course instructor is crucial. The instructors
need to communicate with the student teachers before the online teaching about their drafts of
lesson plans and any questions the student teachers may have; the student teachers also need to
communicate with each other for prior online practicing, voice checking, and feedback. The
communication between the student teachers and the parents is even more important for young
children because the student teachers are supposed to inform the parents in advance about the
objectives of the lesson, ask them to help their children with the technical adjustments during the
class, and prepare the materials for the children’s activities in advance, such as craft paper and
small cardboard boxes. Third, it is essential to maximize the unique value of online tools to assist
student teachers in their online teaching. As Kim (2020) stated, by involving student teachers’ peers in online teaching classes, muted as an observer in a “waiting room,” online teaching gave
them opportunities to learn not only through their direct teaching experience but also by
watching and understanding how each person’s teaching approach might differ and how different
children’s participation could also differ. This experience could lay a solid foundation for after- class reflections and group discussions (Kim, 2020). It is also important to note that online
teaching requires various tasks to be accomplished in the different phases of planning, implementation, and reflection. Therefore, pre-service teacher education programs need to equip
student teachers with adequate skills and capacities in digital environments (Kim, 2020). Conceptual Framework: Turner’s Liminality Theory
Generally speaking, the research questions of this study were based on social construction
and sense-making as the process of digital transformation by which teacher educators create their
social worlds, responses, and their identities in the digital learning era. Therefore, this study
employed the concept of liminality (Turner, 1967, 1977) as a theoretical vehicle to explore

56
teacher educators’ perspectives on digital transformation and their individual and ECPTE
programs’ organizational responses to it. Borrowing from the work of Arnold van Gannep (1960), Turner developed and extended
the term “liminality” and defined it as a state of being “neither one thing nor another; or maybe
both; or neither here nor there; or maybe nowhere... ‘betwixt and between’ recognized fixed
points in the space-time of structural classification” (Turner, 1967, p. 96) in his analysis of
Ndembu rituals. In this state, an individual undergoes a transition from one social status to
another, for instance, from being a boy to becoming an adult man, or when a girl becomes a
woman (such as during what have come to be known as initiation rituals). This concept has now
been extended to other “betwixt and between” conditions in societies and in organizations. Various researchers have used the phrase “betwixt and between” to illuminate the in-between
period, location, and experience of transition within more contemporary cultural and community
contexts (Bosetti et al., 2008; Ibarra & Obodaru, 2016). According to the previous literature review, digital technologies are representing a
fundamental transformation in the way we create, exchange, and distribute value, which will
continue to trigger a profound transition in our society and today’s education. In addition, digital
transformation is an evolving and dynamic process in nature. Thus, it is rational to assume that
both the ECPTE programs and teacher educators in China have started their digital
transformation journey, but the journey is far from complete. Thus, the concept of liminality
provides a way to embed the day-to-day micro-context of teaching life with that of the wider
macro, social and political changes related to digital transformation.

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Conclusion
This chapter provided an overview of the literature on the global trend of digital
transformation in education driven by the booming digital technologies and the COVID-19
pandemic, how digital transformation is defined, the pre-service teacher education system in
China, including early childhood pre-service teacher education, policies and characteristics of
DT in Chinese HEIs, and the practice of DT in pre-service teacher education. The literature
review constructed a comprehensive global, cultural, and political context to investigate the
perspectives of faculty involved in the phenomenon of DT in the early childhood pre-service
teacher education sector in China and lays the foundation for uncovering the complexity of the
transformation and for a holistic understanding of what is happening in this disruptive digital
space. The next chapter discusses in detail the methodological approach employed in this study
to understand the experiences and perceptions of faculty on DT from ECPTE programs at the
college level in China.

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Chapter 3: Methods
The purpose of this study was to understand the experiences and perceptions of early
childhood education faculty in China on digital transformation (DT) in Early Childhood pre- service Teacher Education (ECPTE) programs at the college level. In the context of the global
digital transformation of education, the Chinese government has made the digitalization of
education an essential means to achieve the goal of constructing “Digital China” and has
announced a series of related national policies. Because of teachers’ vital role in preparing the
future workforce, the DT of pre-service teacher education affects the quality of China’s
education of the next generation with abilities to adapt to the digital era. Serving 46.27 million
children ranging in age from three to six years with more than three million preschool teachers
(MOE, 2022), China’s early childhood education system has experienced a rapid expansion and
has been receiving close attention from the government in order to provide high-quality universal
preschool education nationwide. In this light, ECPTE programs in China have expanded
dramatically and are supposed to be ready to educate today’s young children who are digital
natives. However, the children’s play-based learning approach and the traditional teacher
preparation model which relies heavily on face-to-face delivery have posed significant
challenges to the DT of the preschool profession. Therefore, understanding faculty’s experience
and perceptions on the implementation of DT could help policymakers understand the
complexities of DT at the practical level and develop related consequential sub-policies for more
feasible guidelines and necessary resources, particularly in the early childhood education field. It
could also provide practical implications for early childhood colleagues worldwide exploring and
practicing DT in pre-service teacher education and help them be better prepared for DT. The study took Turner’s (1967, 1977) Liminality Theory as its conceptual framework.

59
Through the lens of this theory, the “state of being” of teacher educators as individuals and
ECPTE programs as organizations in the DT process were explored, depicted, and analyzed
based on teacher educators’ perspectives. Three research questions guided this study:
1. What have early childhood pre-service teacher educators at the college level in China
experienced in their programs related to digital transformation?
2. How do early childhood pre-service teacher educators perceive their capabilities to
integrate technology into their instructional practices?
3. What are early childhood pre-service teacher educators’ perceptions about implementing
digital transformation, particularly regarding online practicum with young children?
This study employed a qualitative approach because qualitative research focuses on
meaning and understanding rather than the outcomes (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). DT itself is a
changing process (Vial, 2019) with various organizational, political, and cultural contexts
making DT implementation a dynamic change process. As such, the study did not aim to
measure how well DT was conducted in ECPTE programs in China. Instead, it intended to
understand the perspectives of faculty involved in the phenomenon of DT in a particular context, uncover the complexity of the transformation in a contextual framework, and present a holistic
interpretation of what is happening (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). Furthermore, the choice of
qualitative methods had targeted significance and value in the context of DT implementation in
China. At the macro-level, Chinese national policies were in full swing to advance DT of higher
education. For example, the Chinese government successfully constructed the world’s largest
MOOC platform in 2023. However, the core of realizing DT is not only about the “number” or
the “scale.” It is more about how organizations respond to technology disruptions and alter their
value creation paths (Vial, 2019). It is about the “people” in the organization who are the

60
practitioners and agents of change. Therefore, the focus of this study was to depict individual
stories and perceptions against the backdrop of a historical transformation wave. Organizational Overview
In China, normal universities (Shi Fan Da Xue) and normal colleges (Shi Fan Zhuan Ke) are
the mainstays of training pre-service teachers. In general, normal colleges are the main suppliers
for the local teaching force with large numbers of graduates compared to normal universities. For
example, in the field of early childhood education, statistics from the Ministry of Education in
China (MOE, 2020) showed that teachers with an associate bachelor’s degree (who graduated
from college-level institutions) counted for 57.8% of the full-time teachers working in
preschools and kindergartens. Only 25.7% of full-time teachers had acquired a bachelor’s degree
or above in this field (MOE, 2020). These data reveal that college-level teacher preparation
programs are the main supplier of preschool teachers in the landscape of the Chinese early
childhood education workforce. According to data from the Ministry of Education in China, there are 55 normal colleges
specializing in early childhood education (You’er Shi Fan Zhuan Ke) throughout 31 provinces in
China (MOE, 2023). All of them are public and governed by the local education bureau. They
are the main suppliers of local early childhood teachers in each province, with more than 10,000
full-time faculty in these colleges. As such, this study purposefully selected three normal colleges from those 55 normal
colleges (You’er Shi Fan Zhuan Ke) based on the following considerations: (1) the researcher
had access to the college; (2) the college had begun to integrate technology in teaching and some
degree of online teaching had been implemented (blended teaching is included); and (3) the
colleges were located in different geographical and economic development contexts. Given the

61
large differences in socioeconomic development levels across China, the three proposed research
sites were selected from different regions purposefully to gather rich information on DT of
ECPTE programs, including the east-coast region (the most economically developed region in
China), central region, and west-south region (relatively economically backward mountain
provinces). Interviewees were recruited purposefully within these three sites. Pseudonyms were
used to maintain the confidentiality of these sites and the participants. East Coast: Sunny Normal College (SNC)
SNC is a public college approved by the Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of
China located in Jiangsu Province, one of the most developed provinces in China located in the
east coast region. At the time of the study, the early childhood education major in SNC had
approximately 700 registered students and 26 full-time faculty. There were three affiliated lab
preschools and 78 practice bases off campus, which covered almost all high-quality preschools in
Jiangsu Province. SNC is the leading practitioner of educational reforms and innovation policies
in the early childhood section of Jiangsu province. The college started to construct digital
curriculum resources before the outbreak of COVID-19 in 2020. Online teaching was the
primary method of instruction for this college during the outbreak of COVID-19. Following the
pandemic, it had fully resumed offline classes but was still building digital teaching resources. Central: Chang Normal College (CNC)
CNC is a full-time public college approved by the People’s Government of Hunan Province
which is located in the central region of China. The history of the school dates back to 1912. Therefore, it has a high reputation in the local preschool teacher training field because of its long
history. The Early Childhood Education department is the key department of the college, with
more than 2,300 students and 47 full-time faculty. The school had been selected as the

62
construction unit of the Hunan Province preschool education digital resource library in 2018 and
had built a Smart Classroom for pre-service early childhood teacher training as reported by its
official website. West: Grant Normal College (GNC)
GNC was established in 1984 and is a full-time public college approved by the People's
Government of Guizhou Province and filed by the Ministry of Education of China. Guizhou
province is located in the west-south region of China, which is a relatively economically
backward mountain area. At the time of the study, GNC College offered 18 majors and had more
than 5,000 students. Three hundred five full-time faculty members were employed in the college, and 35 were serving in the Department of early childhood education. As a leader and reform
innovator in early education teacher preparation in Southwest China, GNC began experimenting
with the integration of digital technology into education and teaching before the pandemic in
2019. Population and Sample
The population for this study was faculty (teacher educators) in early childhood pre-service
teacher education programs at the college level in China. As explained in Chapter 2, the Chinese
pre-service education system has transformed from a three-tier to a two-tier structure. The main
entities of Chinese pre-service early childhood teacher preparation are normal colleges, not
normal universities. These colleges which are specialized in early childhood pre-service teacher
education are called You’er Shi Fan Zhuan Ke in China. This study utilized purposeful sampling
(Merriam & Tisdell, 2016), which allowed for a non-randomized approach to select participants
who could offer data directly related to the research questions. Nineteen participants from the
three research sites contributed to this study. All of them were interviewed individually online

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and then thirteen of them were invited to participate in the focus group based on their willingness
and availability. The criteria for selecting the faculty interviewee sample were as follows: (a)
teaching in the early childhood education majors in one of the three colleges when interviewed, (b) had integrated digital technologies in the teaching process, including but not limited to online
teaching, using digital platforms to facilitate teaching and learning, or participating in
constructing digital resources for teaching purposes, (c) willingness to share personal
experiences, (d) availability, and (e) consent to be audio or video recorded. Data Collection and Instrumentation
Because the purpose of this study was to understand the experience and perceptions of
faculty on digital transformation in ECPTE programs, and a qualitative research approach is
most appropriate to explore how people interpret their experiences, how they construct their
worlds, and what meaning they attribute to their experiences (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016), this
method matched the goals of the study. Therefore, this study used instrumentation that supported
the collection of descriptive narratives provided by the participants. It employed a screening
survey to gather data that was used in purposive sampling, and then interviews were the main
source of information and data collection, which were followed by focus groups with the same
group of participants who were interested in further discussion. Several methods of data
collection were applied to create triangulation of the data, which allowed the verification of
internal validity through utilizing data from multiple sources (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). Screening Survey
The study started with a screening survey to support the recruitment and selection of
participants. It provided background data reported by the potential participants, which were used
for purposeful sampling and to ensure the participants meet the criteria for selection. The

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screening survey first asked the teacher educators if they were interested in participating in an
approximately 45-minute interview on digital transformation in ECPTE programs and explained
the voluntary participation principle through the University of Southern California (USC)
Information Sheet (see Appendix A). If they choose yes, then they were guided to finish the
screening survey answering some background questions related to the participant’s age, gender, educational background, working experience, whether serving in a leading administrative role, and online teaching experience (see Appendix B). Also, they were asked to enter their contact
information for further communication. It took approximately five minutes for the participants to
complete and had fewer than ten questions. The screening survey was created using the online survey tool Wen Juan Xing (a popular
online survey tool in China and Mandarin-friendly) and presented in Chinese. All of the protocol
instruments were created in English first and then used forward and backward translation to
ensure accuracy. Through three particular faculty, one at each site, the screening survey was sent
digitally to as many colleagues as they could access from their site working in early childhood
pre-service teacher education programs (there are non-early childhood pre-service teacher
education programs in these three colleges). The number of surveys sent by the designated
teacher educator in each of the three colleges varied. Table 1 presents how many surveys were
sent in SNC, GNC, and CNC, respectively, how many responses were received, and how many
teacher educators the researcher ultimately chose as participants in this study at each school
based on their self-reported background information related to the study criteria for participation. Table 1
Numbers of Screening Surveys that Sent, Responded and Selected Participants
College Number of Number of Number of Number of

65
Screening Survey
Sent
Screening Survey
Responded
Interviewees
Selected
Interviewees Who
Also Participated
Focus Groups
SNC 14 7 7 3
GNC 30 10 7 5
CNC 10 7 5 5
Total 54 24 19 13
Once the USC Institutional Review Board (IRB) approved the study, I contacted the faculty
member who I was familiar with at each site to send the screening survey link to their pre-service
early childhood education faculty colleagues. Each college was provided a separate link with an
individualized link cover embedded with their college name and logo to show respect and help
me track data respectively. Also, the screening survey briefly described the nature and purpose of
the study and included the USC Information Sheet for them to review. Fifty-four screening
surveys were sent out among the three colleges and twenty-four were filled out. Although this
study was originally designed to include only five participants from each college, there were
more than five teacher pre-service educators in every selected college who responded to the
survey and qualified for participation based on the study criteria. Therefore, I included more than
five participants at each college. For SNC, all the participants who filled out the screening survey
expressed strong interest in participating in the study when contacted, so I invited all seven
teacher educators to participate in the interviews. For GNC, three out of ten potential participants
who filled out the survey could not arrange interviews due to temporary program tasks, and I
included the other seven participants, each with a diverse background. As for CNC, seven
potential participants filled out the survey, but there were two teacher educators who were busy

66
handling personal arrangements during the given time, so I included the remaining five teacher
educators as participants. Interviews
The purpose of the interview was to gain a better understanding of changes that the faculty
had experienced in the process of DT and their perceptions on their capabilities of integrating
technologies into their practice and on online practicum. These experiences and perceptions
rooted in their daily teaching and lives could not be directly observed. As a key instrument for
qualitative research, when the researcher is interested in interpretations of experiences and
feelings (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016), interviewing “allowed us to enter into the other person’s
perspective” (Patton, 2015, p. 426). In addition, it enables the collection of rich and detailed data
that could only be captured by talking to a participant (Maxwell, 2013). Nineteen participants from the three selected sites were interviewed in a one-on-one
encounter virtually. The interview itself was semi-structured, guided by a list of questions or
issues to be explored according to the research questions (see Appendix D and Table D1), and
neither the exact wording nor the order of the questions was determined ahead of time (Merriam
& Tisdell, 2016). This format allowed for more flexibility during the interview, so I was able to
respond to the situation at hand, to the emerging worldview of the respondent, and to new ideas
on the topic (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). Thus, the semi-structured interviews ensured the probing
of particular themes corresponding to the research questions and collection of rich descriptive
data while at the same time providing a flexible space in which interviewees could develop their
unique insights and individual stories about DT, making this method well suited for this study. After confirming with each participant that they consented to the recording, 19 virtual one- one-one interviews were scheduled. All the interviews were conducted online through a private

67
meeting room with password via Tencent Meeting (an online conference tool that is more stable
and common in use in China). The length of each interview was between 45 minutes and an hour. Before starting the interview, I introduced the purpose of the study and briefly explained the
Information Sheet of this study again, ensuring the participants’ voluntary participation and
emphasizing the protection of their identity. All the interviewees expressed that they were clear
about the information shared before the interview started. The interviews were recorded by
Tencent Meeting and by my iPhone at the same time to make sure every word was documented
clearly. Right after the interviews, participants were asked if they were interested in further
participating in a one-hour focus group with other teacher educators from the same college. The
researcher respected participants’ choices and recorded their willingness to participate. Almost
all the interview participants showed interest in attending the focus group if they were available
for the scheduled group time. All participants who complete the interview received a gift card of
100 RMB for JingDong shopping platform within one week of the completion of the interview
by mail shipping. If the participants contributed in the following focus groups, they received
another 100 RMB gift card after the focus groups. Focus Groups “As a method of collecting data in qualitative research, a focus group is an interview on a
topic with a group of people who have knowledge of the topic” (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016, p. 114). When teacher educators from ECPTE programs came to a group setting and were
immersed in an informal conversation, their sharing of experiences and perceptions on DT and
their competencies in integrating technologies expanded on those from the one-on-one
interviews, especially when talking about the challenges that ECPTE programs were facing
related to DT. For example, the faculty might have felt more relaxed talking about their

68
increased workload related to DT and the irreplaceable nature of field practicum when other
colleagues had similar concerns and provided more details in focus group discussions. At the
same time, group communication and even “debates” stimulated emotions or ideas that were not
normally expected by the participants (Chen, 2000). Their body movements and expressions
while communicating with each other also deserved attention. This information was valuable for
gaining a deeper understanding of DT in a particular context and possible recommendations. As
such, the data obtained from the focus groups was socially constructed within the interaction of
the group, which provided rich information for further understanding of the DT phenomenon that
could not have been gained through only individual interviews (Chen, 2000). Since focus group conversations work better when participants meet in person and have
adequate opportunities to voice their opinions (Chen, 2020), three face-to-face focus groups were
conducted with participants who had expressed interests in focus groups after the interviews and
were geographically able to meet. According to Chen (2000) and Merriam and Tisdell (2016), the number of participants in each focus group should not exceed 10 and should preferably be
limited to three to four people. Therefore, I invited thirteen interviewees in total to attend the
three focus groups. For SNC, there were three interviewees discussing their perspectives together;
for GNC and CNC, five interviewees for each attended the focus groups in person (See Table 1). The focus groups were conducted after I completed all of the individual interviews. They
were semi-structured and conversational, guided by themes that “floated up” from the interview
transcripts and were lightly individualized according to each college’s situation reflected by the
interviews in that college (See Appendix E2). At the beginning of the focus groups, I emphasized
the confidentiality of the group conversation, and the script of Introduction and Ground Rules
(See Appendix E1) were presented to all the participants and cell phones were suggested to be

69
turned off. The focus groups were recorded via my cell phone and Tencent Meeting with
participants’ prior consent. The recordings were deleted after completion of data analysis. I also
manually drew a seating chart for each focus group and jotted down the main points of their
perspectives and my thoughts for later analysis. Such hand-taken notes provided me with a
wealth of ideas for analyzing the transcripts later on, allowing a lot of inspiration that may have
otherwise been fleeting. Since the three colleges are located in different provinces of China, I traveled to the three
different cities to conduct the focus groups in person between November 2023 and the end of
December 2023. The focus groups lasted between one to one and a half hours and were hosted in
meeting rooms in SNC and GNC. For CNC, the focus group was conducted in a quiet tea shop. All participants received another gift card of 100 RMB for JingDong right after the focus group
discussion. Data Analysis
For interviews and focus groups, data analysis was conducted simultaneously during data
collection to manage a potentially large amount of data and adjust interview and focus group
protocols as needed to make them more suitable for each ECPTE program. For example, after
conducting the first one-on-one interview in each college, I reviewed the transcript and read it
narratively to make adjustments as needed to refine questions and match the situation of the
particular ECPTE program for more thought-provoking discourses. After each conversation with participants, I wrote analytic memos. These memos served as
a documentation of thoughts, concerns, and initial conclusions about the data, all within the
conceptual framework of the study and research questions. This systematic approach laid a solid
foundation for the later stages of coding and discussion.

70
Upon completion of the interviews and focus groups, the audio recordings were
automatically transcribed using Tencent Meeting’s voice-to-text function. These transcripts then
underwent a rigorous cleaning process, involving multiple auditory reviews to verify their
accuracy and correct any errors generated by the voice-to-text application. This meticulous
process ensured that the transcripts were ready for coding. The NVivo 20 software was used for
data coding, a popular program for qualitative and mixed-methods research, known for its stable
ability to analyze unstructured Chinese text. All the cleaned transcripts were imported into
NVivo, with each transcript linked to a specific case, whether it be a participant or the college
they were associated with, to facilitate subsequent frequency counts. Three analysis phases were conducted to reveal the study findings. In the first analysis
phase, I employed open coding. A priori codes were constructed according to the literature in
Chapter 2 and the research questions first. Then, I reviewed all 22 transcripts line by line to
annotate with priori codes and note relevant statements to seek emergent codes. After this, a
second review was used to note other relevant statements so that I could annotate them with new
codes. This process was repeated as necessary to reach saturation. The second phase was to
conduct axial coding by creating umbrella codes and sub-codes, considering the research
questions and personal biases (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). After these two steps, I created four
levels of codes with 366 codes in total, including 26 level-one codes, 218 level-two codes, 99
level-three codes, and 23 level-four codes. Finally, in the third phase of data analysis, I identified
ten themes that emerged in relation to the conceptual framework and study questions (Merriam
& Tisdale, 2016) by identifying the patterns of the four-level codes and merging similar
categories. The frequency of each level of code was counted automatically by Nvivo 20, and

71
figures were generated as needed. In addition, I also located direct quotes from the transcripts for
later use. Credibility and Trustworthiness
I employed several strategies, including triangulation, member checking, and reflexivity to
increase the credibility of the study’s findings (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). Triangulation was
achieved through the convergence of information from different sources to develop a
comprehensive understanding of phenomena (Patton, 1999). In this study, data were gathered
through individual interviews at three different sites, focus groups, and a literature review. For
instance, for factual questions, such as whether online practicum were conducted during the
outbreak of COVID-19, I verified each participant’s answers with different respondents from the
same college to ensure the accuracy of the information. With multiple data collection methods, the research could address concerns that the findings were artifacts of any single method or
source. This strategy ensured the overall trustworthiness of the findings. Member checking was
also used to confirm that the interpretation of the participants’ interviews was authentically
reflected in the data and the findings. Participants were shared with broad themes of their
interviews’ and focus groups’ transcriptions in Mandarin and asked to provide clarification and
confirmation of particular expressions through WeChat, as needed. This strategy also allowed for
the validation of emerging themes presented in the data (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). Further, I
kept writing reflective memos that openly stated my potential biases, dispositions, and
assumptions related to the research so that any interpretation of the findings could be made with
a full understanding of how my experiences, worldview, and perceptual lens might have
influenced the conclusions reached in the study (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). Finally, all the cited

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quotes in Mandarin were translated into English so that readers could determine their usefulness
and enhance the transferability of the study (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). Ethics
Based on the ethical principle of respect for persons (Miracle, 2016), voluntary participation
is essential. This study recruited participants by sending a screening survey digitally with a brief
introduction of the study’s purpose, asking for their interest in this study and willingness to
participate in the interview and the focus group. Their willingness to attend the follow-up focus
group was also confirmed again right after the completion of individual interviews. Before the
interviews and focus groups, I asked for permission to video record the interviews and focus
groups through Tencent Meeting. Later, I provided the participants with broad themes that were
emerging from the transcripts for them to review through WeChat, making sure that their
perspectives were documented and understood accurately. Confidentiality was emphasized in this study. All the screening survey data, interview
discussion and focus group conversations were confidential. Pseudonyms were used for these
research sites, and each participant was assigned a pseudonym consisting of the college they
belonged to and an Arabic numeral to help protect their identities. Moreover, all focus group
participants were asked to keep all comments made during the focus group confidential and not
discuss what happened during the focus group outside the meeting. It was emphasized that the
study would be written without disclosing the name of the faculty or their programs to protect
privacy (Glesne, 2016). I also considered some potential ethical issues when conducting the
study. For example, since the national policies were urging DT in HEIs in China, some
participants might be concerned that their feedback was disadvantageous to their college or
putting their program in an awkward position. I informed the participants that the purpose of this

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study was not to “evaluate” and I did not represent any evaluation agency or government agency, so there was no judgment. In addition, all data were confidential and presented with pseudonyms. Moreover, faculty members with a direct supervisory relationship were not invited to appear in
the same focus group discussion to avoid any forced silence by power. I built a logical file system in my laptop with the password to store collected data, such as
screening survey data, interview and focus group recordings and transcripts. I also stored deidentified data separately from coding lists, shredded all hard copies with sensitive information, and deleted all the cloud stored recordings on Tencent Meeting after the data analysis. Role of Researcher
Since this study adopted a qualitative design, I was the primary instrument for data
collection and analysis (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). As such, my past experience was inevitably
shaping the interpretation of teacher educators’ experiences and perceptions. I, myself, was a
former faculty member working in the largest private pre-service teacher education college in
China and had held a management position in an ECPTE program for three years. I was also one
of the earliest innovative practitioners in the development and delivery of online pre-service and
in-service teacher education programs in the early childhood education field in China. I had
worked as the partner of the top online teacher education platform which had more than
3,000,000 early childhood educator followers in China. Therefore, regarding DT in ECPTE
programs, my previous background laid a foundation for understanding as both a former “teacher
educator” and “DT implementer.” These experiences provided me with an advantage in understanding and interpreting the
study data in depth. However, interacting with participants as an “insider” might also have led to
potential bias and judgments. Therefore, I identified and monitored my “subjectivity” during the

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research process by writing reflective memos. In this way, I was able to clearly and continuously
track how my previous experience and knowledge might be shaping the collection and
interpretation of data (Creswell & Creswell, 2018).

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Chapter 4: Presentation of Data and Findings
The purpose of this study was to understand the experiences and perceptions of early
childhood education faculty in China on digital transformation (DT) in Early Childhood pre- service Teacher Education (ECPTE) programs at the college level. It sought to bridge the gap
between the increasing national policy documents on DT and the actual practice with teacher
educators’ individual perceptions and stories. Nineteen one-on-one semi-structured interviews and three focus groups with faculty who
worked in three different ECPTE programs in China were formulated to engender insights to the
following three research questions:
1. What have early childhood pre-service teacher educators at the college level in China
experienced in their programs related to digital transformation?
2. How do early childhood pre-service teacher educators perceive their capabilities to
integrate technology into their instructional practices?
3. What are early childhood pre-service teacher educators’ perceptions about
implementing digital transformation, particularly regarding online practicum with
young children?
This chapter will provide an overview of the study participants, followed by key findings
for each research question. Overview of Study Participants
This study purposefully selected three normal colleges from the east (SNC), central (CNC), and west areas of China (GNC). All of them are public and governed by the local education
bureau. The study employed a screening survey of early childhood pre-service teacher educators
in these colleges to recruit and select interview participants based on study criteria. Nineteen

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faculty participated in the study, and each was assigned a pseudonym consisting of the college
they belonged to and an Arabic numeral to help protect their identities. The study included two
men and seventeen women with varying years of experience in ECPTE programs, from less than
five years to more than 20 years. At the time of the interviews, all of them were actively
employed in the three colleges with teaching responsibilities, and five served in program
leadership positions. Table 2 provides some insights into each interviewee based on their self-revealed
backgrounds in the screening survey. Table 3 shows the participants of focus groups from each
selected college; all of them had previously participated in individual interviews and presented
their interests in attending a focus group to the researcher. Table 2
Background Information About the 19 Interview Participants
Participants Gender Age
Highest
level of
education
completed
Length of
service in
current
ECPTE
Program
Serving in
leadership
positions or not
College
CNC1 F 25-30 Master
Less than 5
Years NO CNC
CNC2 F 25-30 Master
Less than 5
Years NO CNC
CNC3 F 30-35 Master 5-10 Years NO CNC
CNC4 F 30-35 Master 5-10 Years YES CNC
CNC5 F 20-25 Master
Less than 5
Years NO CNC
CNC6 F 25-30 Master
Less than 5
Years NO CNC
GNC1 F 40-45 Master 15-20 Years YES GNC
GNC2 F 25-30 Master
Less than 5
Years NO GNC
GNC3 F 30-35 Master 5-10 Years NO GNC
GNC4 F 25-30 Master
Less than 5
Years NO GNC
GNC5 M 40-45 Master 15-20 Years YES GNC

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GNC6 F 30-35 Master 10-15 Years NO GNC
SNC1 F 30-35 Master 5-10 Years NO SNC
SNC2 F 35-40 Master 10-15 Years NO SNC
SNC3 M 40-45 Doctor
More than
20 Years YES SNC
SNC4 F 25-30 Master
Less than 5
Years NO SNC
SNC5 F 30-35 Master 10-15 Years NO SNC
SNC6 F 30-35 Master 5-10 Years YES SNC
SNC7 F 35-40 Master 10-15 Years NO SNC
Table 3
Information About Focus Group Participants From the Three Colleges
Groups Colleges Participants Numbers
1 CNC CNC1, CNC2, CNC3, CNC5, CNC6
5
2 GNC GNC1, GNC2, GNC3, GNC4, CNG5
5
3 SNC SNC1, SNC2, SNC5 3
Research Question 1: What Have Early Childhood Pre-Service Teacher Educators at
the College Level in China Experienced in Their Programs Related to Digital
Transformation?
The first research question sought to understand the perceived changes ECPTE faculty
experienced related to the enactment of DT-advocating policies in China, initiated during the
pandemic when school closures were common and continued thereafter. Questions such as, “What have you experienced since the beginning of the pandemic in the field of early childhood
education?,” “What specific strategic changes at your program and college have you seen related
to digital transformation, such as policies and procedures,?” and “How would you describe your

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program’s response to the DT-related policies at the implementation level?” were constructed to
gather responses. Four key findings emerged through data analysis. 1. The COVID-19 pandemic boosted a sudden shift of early childhood pre-service teacher
education modality from face-to-face to online. 2. The learning platform Xuexi Tong is an important vehicle for pre-service teacher
educators to implement DT. 3. Booming digital education resource construction with full participation has contrary low
usage. 4. Emerging requirements from Vocational Education Skills Competitions are a driver of
ECPTE programs’ DT practice. The discussions below contextualize the findings, describe the live experiences encountered
by participants in the background of DT-promoting policies and COVID-19, and describe their
initial practices, perceived gains, and confusion in their DT journeys fueled by multiple external
forces. Finding 1: The COVID-19 Pandemic Boosted a Sudden Shift of Early Childhood Pre- Service Teacher Education Modality From Face-to-Face to Online
All the participants recognized that COVID-19 played an essential role in bringing online
teaching and tech-empowered learning for both early childhood pre-service students and teachers. Fourteen participants considered the outbreak of COVID-19 at the beginning of 2020 as a
“booster” of online teaching and shifted the modality of their daily teaching almost “overnight.” Although the Chinese government's digital transformation policies had emphasized online
teaching and learning for several years prior to 2020, the actual implementation of online
teaching and learning was still limited prior to the outbreak of COVID-19. As described by

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participant GNC1, “During the pandemic, the ‘Study must not stop during school closure’
requirement from the Ministry of Education forced all the nation's pre-service teacher education
programs to adopt various forms of online teaching and learning suddenly.” Serving in the
leadership position of an ECPTE program for more than ten years, she further elaborated her
observation on this shift, stating, Before the pandemic, we encouraged the faculty to try online teaching for several years. But
they were inert about it. Only a few of them developed massive open online courses
(MOOCs) via designated platforms. But when the pandemic started, it was immediately
required that all classes had to be conducted online, so it didn't matter if the faculty member
was older or younger and would previously attempt to teach online or not. However, when further probed about the actual ways of delivering “online teaching,” it was
revealed that the three colleges had employed different approaches for teaching virtually. CNC
did not require its faculty to provide live broadcasts due to limited technical platform resources
and supportive online teaching management mechanisms. SNC and GNC mainly used live
lecturing as their delivering mode of online teaching, assisted by recorded videos and other
digital resources. Participant GNC1 and Participant GNC6 both stated that to ensure attendance
rate and quality of online teaching, GNC even built up a teaching quality monitoring system
during that time, which meant that selected supervisors could enter any online classrooms at any
time virtually during the pre-service teachers' live classes to ensure the attendance and quality of
the online classes. If any factor negatively interfered with the quality of the class, then the
supervisor communicated with the classroom teacher and attempted to resolve the situation with
support from the college. Table 4 presents the descriptions of ways of delivering pre-service
teaching during the pandemic from the three research sites.

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Table 4
Delivering Mode of Teaching During COVID-19
Actual ways of delivering online teaching during the pandemic College Participant CNC2 introduced the situation in CNC: In the first round of the pandemic, 2020, we didn't have a complete system for this online
course software and system at that time, so the college only asked us to upload some course materials and course assignments for the students to learn, and there was no requirement
for live lectures. But there is a part of the teachers who have many practical-skill-oriented modules in their courses, for example, the course Infant and Child Hygiene and Health
requires students to learn how to clean and sanitize surface and classrooms. In this case, the
teachers may have their own requirements for students to attend live class for demonstration and practice.
CNC
No
requirements
for live
streaming. Videos and
other digital course materials were
shared online. Some teachers used live- stream based
on courses’ needs.
Participant CNC4, who taught infant-care related courses, elaborated: I used the software Tencent Meeting to teach live classes during school closure since my
class is mainly related to infant and toddler care, which was very practical, so I employed
live streams. However, it was difficult for me to clearly demonstrate in front of my
computer to show my students how I accomplish feeding or burping of a baby unless I add
an additional camera. But by that time the express delivery service had also stopped so I couldn’t buy anything and the teaching conditions at home were really limited and
inconvenient. Participant GNC1 described the class delivery mode in GNC: That outbreak came so suddenly! Despite the suddenness it was still necessary to close
schools but not to stop teaching. Our school had already purchased the services of the Xuexi Tong teaching platform, so 80% of our teachers, regardless of their age, chose to
teach on Xuexi Tong during the epidemic. GNC
Required live
streaming for all teachers and set up
quality control system to
ensure online
teaching
quality. Her colleague GNC3’s statement verified her description: Our school required us to employ live streaming for most of the semester for classes, basically. Participants from SNC expressed more flexibility on delivery mode of online teaching during
the pandemic, noting that they had the support for live streaming but could also choose to
record their lectures. Participant SNC2 explained: During the pandemic, if teachers and students could not come to school, we conducted
online teaching. There were two ways: live teaching and recorded teaching. In the case of
live broadcasting, we used WeChat or Tencent Meeting, which were suggested by our program. In the case of recorded teaching, we mainly use "Xuexi Tong" to record and
upload the videos of our courses and then release them to the students during the class
time, check the students' viewing and learning status through the back-end data, and then
check their mastery through online quizzes. SNC
Hybrid mode. Teachers decided the mode based on
courses’ needs. Participant SNC4 added based on her personal experience: During the pandemic, I taught the course ‘Research Methods In Early Childhood
Education.’This course’s content related to more theories than practical skills, so it didn’t require a lot of live interaction, and students could just check my lectures whenever they wanted. Therefore, I recorded my lectures into videos, uploaded them to the Xuexi Tong
platform together with related materials, and assigned tasks to students for them to study. But if there were assignment reviews and discussion, I would still use the form of live broadcast for better learning outcomes.

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Six participants suggested “forced” and “sudden transformation” and expressed concern for
students' poor learning outcomes. The main challenge they perceived was, “There was no way to
monitor whether students were learning or not,” as claimed by Participant GNC2; she revealed, I was teaching children’s developmental psychology during COVID-19, which I used to
employ role play and psychodrama for students to get experiential experience and to
facilitate their understanding of young children’s behaviors. But for online teaching, I kept
lecturing. If I would not call their names frequently in my live class, the students must have
been sleeping. Participant GNC3 elaborated that such online self-learning led to “disappointing” learning
outcomes, “To be honest, I felt that the vast majority of the students did not master what I was
teaching, especially the hands-on skills related to taking care of young children.” Participant
SNC6 from another college had similar comments:
I was one of the judges for the Pre-service Teachers’ Skills Competition the year just after
COVID-19. When I saw this cohort of students’ presenting their professional skills, such as
planning an engaging literacy activity and implementing it, managing the 3-year-olds’ daily
routines or documenting children’s behavior and identifying personalized educational needs, the other judges and I all agreed that, ‘This was a cohort of students who learned in their
beds.’ Many of their professional competencies were not at a satisfactory level, and they
even made common-sense mistakes. These responses echoed Participant GNC1’s reflection on the necessity for setting up a
teaching quality monitoring system at her college. She added that besides supervision for faculty
teaching,

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We experienced two rounds of school closures during the outbreak, one where the students
were at home, and we had no way to monitor their learning; the second time, the students
were centrally housed in the school, but the majority of our faculty members were trapped at
home. So, during the second round of closure, we had a few faculty members stay on
campus to accompany the students. They went to the dormitories to check on the students' online learning ...We also designated a student in each dormitory room to be the ‘study
leader’ for that dormitory...to ensure students could study as seriously as possible. It is worth noting that the students’ socioeconomic status was also considered in some
colleges to ensure they had access to the Internet. It was highlighted by participant GNC1 that, Our college specializes in early childhood education and is located in the relatively
economically disadvantaged Southwest area. Therefore, 95% of students who chose the
ECPTE program at GNC were from poor mountain areas and there was no free WIFI
available when they were staying at home for a live class. The internet on campus was not
good either. So we provided mobile data subsidy for each student, which was approximately
30 RMB for monthly mobile data purchase. Participants CNC1 and CNC6 also revealed a similar experience they had in CNC, which is
located in the central part of China. They said the program “gave each faculty a subsidy for
membership service of online teaching platform, for example, Tencent Meeting,” Participant
CNC1 added that “each class was also given a prepaid data card for the whole class to use while
they needed to have online class on campus.”
In summary, the COVID-19 outbreak acted as an external force, and the period from early
2020 to late 2022 (when the Chinese government lifted its quarantine policy on the pandemic)
facilitated the DT of ECPTE programs. Although all three colleges adopted online teaching to

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cope with the intermittent school closures, not all of them were prepared to respond in terms of
technological platforms, quality control mechanisms, and supporting strategies needed for pre- service early childhood education. Pre-service teachers were “forced to shift” from on-site
teaching to virtual instructing, leaving them concerned and dissatisfied with their students' learning outcomes, especially in terms of the practical skills needed of preschool teachers. Finding 2: The Learning Platform Xuexi Tong Became an Important Vehicle for Pre- service Teacher Educators to Implement DT
All participants mentioned a popular online learning platform, Xuexi Tong, which is a
professional mobile learning platform for smartphones, tablets and other mobile terminals. It was
one of the 22 platforms recommended by the Chinese Ministry of Education. According to the
participants’ responses, Xuexi Tong became the main platform for teaching and learning
transformation across all three colleges. All participants stated Xuexi Tong as the main platform
they employed to “develop e-courses,” “upload digital curriculum resources,” and “release and
grade assignments” for students. For the colleges that did not deliver live classes during the
pandemic, Xuexi Tong was the major platform for virtual learning, through which the ECPTE
program-level e-courses were developed and delivered. Four participants recognized the
pervasive application of Xuexi Tong in their program as one of “the most notable changes”
related to DT. After the pandemic, although all three colleges had returned back to offline teaching as
before 2020, Xuexi Tong still served as a vital vehicle for DT from the faculty’s perspectives. Twelve participants revealed four common reasons for this continuity of use. First, the automated grading function reduced the burden on teachers to grade objective
questions and helped teachers to evaluate students learning outcomes more efficiently

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(Participants CNC3, CNC4, CNC5, CNC6, SNC2, SNC5), “such as knowledge checking of
classic pedagogy theories and understanding of key developmental indicators in children's
cognitive development and emotional development” (GNC2). Meanwhile, when it came to
assessing pre-service teachers’ professional skills, participants from all three colleges in focus
groups agreed that Xuexi Tong also made this process more efficient and more “visualized,”
especially for large-size classes. Participant CNC3 shared her example, as stating, Each year, our Provincial Department of Education randomly selects approximately 10% of
the students for the Pre-service Teachers Professional Skills Test. The content of the test
covers typical tasks in the workplace of an early childhood teacher, such as caring for a
child with a high fever, and I need to ask my students to practice a lot because the passing
rate of this test is closely related to my teaching performance. However, we have 40-50
students in a class, and there is no way for me to check whether they have mastered it one
by one. It is really time-consuming. I grouped these students into small groups of about
eight each, and the group leader was responsible for taking videos of the group members' child care behaviors step-by-step and uploading them to Xuexi Tong, so that I could
randomly check the videos of each group. Second, it was easy to increase student-teacher interactions using built-in interactive tools
and give timely feedback through Xuexi Tong, especially for large class-size, such as voting, randomized roll call and group posting functions (Participants CNC3, CNC5, CNC6, GNC3, GNC4, SNC4). Participant CNC5 elaborated on this benefit in the focus group discussion in
detail,Because so many students might be more introverted, that is, when you use the traditional
form, students might not want to raise their hands to answer the question. However, now

85
they are just used to using their cell phones. They were very active if you started an online
discussion via Xuexi Tong, such as analyzing their parents’ parenting style based on their
personal experience. Everyone would love to share and join the discussion by posting online. But if you ask them to talk about it in person, they might be uncomfortable with it. Third, many participants stated that Xuexi Tong is very convenient for students to have pre- class self-learning and reviewing after-class since all the needed materials were online. Therefore, additional learning resources were able to be introduced to students without the constraints of
limited class time (Participants CNC1, CNC3, CNC5, GNC2, SNC5, SNC7). Through the large
amount of videos, pre-class reading materials prepared in advance, and powerful sharing
function of Xuexi Tong, some teachers tried flipped-classroom approaches, which let the
students conduct self-learning in advance and teachers facilitate their discussion and sharing
during the class time. Participant SNC7 shared her experience on this more “student-centered”
approach with a proud smile, I teach the class called “Children’s Art Education.” My teaching approach has changed over
the five years, and at one time I would have been more of a lecturer. But now I provided a
theme or topic based on my curriculum plan, asked students to explore and collect the
information themselves, then share what they learned through Xuexitong or WeChat group. Then, they were invited to present in small groups during the class. My students were very
creative and collected fantastic materials, for example, the amazing art works of young
children for us to analyze. The students' ability to search for information online was very
powerful and I didn’t think I could be better than them. Figure 1 presents the functions of Xuxi Tong that faculty members employed for their daily
teaching scenarios.

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Figure 1
Application of the learning platform Xuexi Tong by Faculty
Lastly, Xuexi Tong platform was also able to help faculty members fulfill some top-down
DT requirements related to data collection and accountability. Participant CNC3 further
elaborated this point, To apply for a large grant from the Provincial Department of Education, we had to provide
'evidence' and 'traces' of our daily teaching, especially our use of tech-tools. This included
keeping records of student attendance, assignments, and feedback. Xuexi Tong was a good
helper in automatically maintaining all this data. In short, although all three colleges resumed a predominantly offline mode of teaching after
the pandemic, the use of Xuexi Tong became a major ongoing DT practice in their daily teaching. The online interaction, auto-grading and documenting features increased the interactivity and

87
efficiency of teaching while the richness of practice scenario-based activity videos on this
platform enhanced student-centered approaches and provided students with more visualized
learning resources that could be observed and imitated without the constraint of class time. Finding 3: Booming Digital Education Resource Construction With Full Participation Has
Contrary Low Usage
Across all interviews in the three colleges, there was unanimous agreement that
construction of digital education resources, including online courses facilitating daily instruction
(for enrolled students-only), MOOCs (open to all, selected and founded by provincial or national
education bureau), and digital teaching resources libraries are in full swing as a vital “change” in
recent years. However, compared to the enthusiasm of the ECPTE program for the
“construction” itself, individual teachers are less likely to utilize the “fruits” of what has been
built.As stated previously, the Chinese Ministry of Education (MOE) has released a series of
related policies emphasizing the high construction of digital education resources. Participants
from all three colleges acknowledged that their colleges highly encouraged the faculty to build
online courses and resources through Xuexi Tong or other college-assigned platforms since the
national DT-related policies announced and the COVID-19 accelerated this pace. If teachers can
apply for provincial or national high-quality online courses awards or grants, “there will be
special funds to support the construction of this specific course ”(Participant GNC1) and “Such
awards are the college's honors as well as an important evaluation index for the faculty's end-of- year assessment (Participant SNC3). Participants stated that the majority of faculty members serving in ECPTE programs had
participated or led one or more online class construction projects (CNC3, CNC4, GNC1, GNC3,

88
GNC5, GNC6, SNC3, SNC6). In the case of the course Language Development in Preschool
Children, for example, the teachers involved in building the online course were required to
design and record the scripts for the course, appear in the lecture videos, and provide online test
questions and extended reading resources for the course. Their contributions to developing these
online courses and related digital resources would be counted as an indicator in the annual
faculty evaluation. It is therefore important for teachers who are on the rise in their careers and
want to improve their titles to participate in this work (Participants GNC1, CNC6, SNC3). However, although participating in such a curriculum building project was a common
experience mentioned by most respondents, fourteen participants responded “not using it” or “rarely using the courses” when asked about the usage of these online courses and resources. Seven participants commented that the quality of the online courses available at their ECPTE
program “varies” and were reluctant to use them for their instruction (participant CNC1, CNC6, GNC5, SNC2, SNC4, SNC5, SNC6). In the CNC focus group, three participants elaborated on
their concerns: “I did not use our program constructed online courses or resources myself; I've
only uploaded some resources for other teachers who have built the course, and I used the
resources that I collected by myself instead” (Participant CNC1); “I think these e-course
resources had not been strictly screened. These resources were just uploaded to fill up the
quantity within a very short time” (Participant CNC5); and “Some of this e-recourse might not
even be of good enough quality for my class, so I cannot say that they are high-quality e-course
resources” (Participant CNC6). Participant GNC5’s sentiment echoed such responses with a
slightly exasperated expression, Even some of the online courses were selected as high-quality courses and presented on the
national platform, I found that the content was actually very simple and not very well

89
referenced. But of course, some of them were still very inspiring. So there was some
confusion about the criteria for this selection. At the same time, six participants from three different universities mentioned another
important reason for not using these digital resources, stating it was not convenient and time- consuming to “dig out” what teachers need from these resources (Participants CNC4, GNC2, GNC5, SNC2, SNC6, SNC7). Participant GNC4 explained, “These courses were made according
to chapters, and the resources are ‘buried’ inside, it was hard for me to find out bit by bit what's
suitable for my instructions.” Therefore, eight participants shared that compared with such
“lecture-style” college faculty generated online courses and less referenced e-resources, they
preferred to utilize short videos or posts from non-teaching commercial website or apps, such as
Bilibili, a Southeast Asia’ leading video sharing website, and Xiaohong Shu, which is called the
Chinese answer of Instagram. As described by Participant CNC4, “I use Xiaohong Shu the most
because it helped me quickly search for the videos I wanted.” With excitement on her face, participant GNC3 complimented that “there were a lot of very interesting and vivid animations
on these websites, and the videos were edited in such a novel way that students loved to watch
them.” Participant SNC7 also mentioned that not only did she, as a faculty member, use such
websites and apps to facilitate instruction, but also her students were really good at searching
appropriate videos via Xiaohong Shu to illustrate their assignments:
For example, when I teach the course preschool class management, my students found a
perfect 3 minutes’ video shared by an in-service teacher, which perfectly demonstrated how
a preschool teacher conducted daily routine for young kids. Participant GNC5 expressed his analysis on the reasons why such commercial websites
provided more attractive resources that teachers and students preferred to use,

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Whether it is our college-level or provincial-level online courses, once they have been
selected and honored as ‘high-quality’ courses for these platforms, the creators would not
improve the content or innovate the form based on viewers’ feedback. Most of times, there
were few viewers for those courses. These courses have been secured and ‘verified.’ But as
for Xiaohongshu or Bilibili, these commercial platforms rely on user-generated content and
the actual number of views counts; if the content is not good, it will be ‘ridiculed.’ Participants’ discussions in focus groups consistently revealed that ECPTE faculty enjoyed
and looked forward to having more high-quality e-resources suitable for their instruction. However, most of the participants indicated that the large number of e-curriculum resources that
have been built at the college level at present are not ideal for them (Participants CNC4, GNC2, GNC5, SNC2, SNC6, SNC7). It is interesting to note that eight participants revealed the phenomenon of students to “brush
up” online-courses’ viewing on Xuexi Tong. As claimed by Participant CNC4, “Students would
go and ‘watch’ the online courses, but they were not learning seriously. They were just putting
their phone there.” Participant CNC5 in the focus group discussion, who works in the same
college as Participant CNC4, added, ironically, that “brushing up” online class behavior might
not only be due to the student's lack of seriousness in online learning but also might be due to the
teachers’ requirements. She explained:
Some teachers asked their students to do online learning to increase viewings so that the
online courses they constructed could be better evaluated when competing for provincial
high-quality online-class awards. However, their actual offline teaching is not connected to
or integrated with the online part. In such cases, the students were purely trying to help the

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teachers increase the viewing of the courses ...... Students resent this behavior .....I never
asked my students to do so...... In focus group at SNC, participants expressed very strong concerns about the fact that
almost everyone was involved in building digital education resources and every ECPTE
programs engaged here, given the incentives to do so. SNC5 presented her suggestions, I would like to know if there could be some professional organization or official body to
take the lead (in building) online course resources for ECPTE programs. Such organization
can say that these particular courses and resources are great and then just promote them
across the country for everyone to use. Please don't waste any more money on such
developing such courses like us. Right now, everyone is doing it and actually wasting
money, and the poor-quality course content may instead mislead students. SNC 2 echoed with agreement, Right, right, right. Nowadays, there are all kinds of courses; for example, one course, such
as Preschool Music Education, you could see that there are five online courses of this name
developed by five colleges. I need to watch and decide what I need for my instruction, which was very troublesome. SNC 5 further elaborated on her suggestion, stating:
We need a branded, professional, accredited, and authoritative online ECPTE program, not
just a self-developed one for each school. Even if it's just a few colleges collaborating and
organizing a group of people who are very knowledgeable in a particular course area to
create one that is really worth learning. In sum, driven by DT-related policies promoting construction of online courses and other
digital educational resources, participants in all three colleges had some experience in building

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such digital courses. However, uneven course quality and inconvenience of using them with
traditional lecture formats hindered the actual application of such constructed resources which
consumed a lot of time and funding. More reliable evaluation of the designated provincial or
national high-quality online courses and replacement of each college-constructed curricula with a
unified set of high-quality online curricula were suggested by ECPTE teacher educators. Finding 4: Emerging Requirement From Vocational Skills Competitions Became a Driver
of ECPTE Programs’ DT Practice
Ten out of 19 participants revealed that Vocational Skill Competitions directly drove some
“innovative use of technologies for teaching scenarios” (participant CNC4) and “pushed us to
learn about those updating techniques (participant GNC3)” for early childhood pre-service
education. According to participants, pre-service teacher preparation programs at the college
level in China belong to the vocational education section under the Ministry of Education. Awards from provincial and national Vocational Skills Competitions were considered as a “vital
honor” for vocational colleges, including ECPTE programs in this study. Therefore, all
participants reported that they had some experience in attending various skills competitions as a
contestant or as a coach. More than half of them mentioned that they were increasing digital
technology integrating requirements in those competitions in recent years (Participants CNC1, CNC6, GNC3, SNC3). Serving as program leaders, both Participant GNC1 and Participant
SNC3 agreed that participating in these competitions provided the faculty “opportunities for
exploring cutting-edge digital technologies” (GNC1) and “thinking about how to use them in
early childhood education” (SNC3).

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Participant GNC3, as a core teacher who has been teaching for almost10 years and had
participated in several skills competitions in recent years, took herself as an example and
explained, Through attending the competition by myself or coaching students, I got a lot of selfimprovement in utilizing digital technologies or new equipment. For example, I am the first
person in my program who knows how to take care of the intelligent simulation dolls, and I
even tried the 5G virtual reality preschool’s technique last year in my competition. My skills
in developing PowerPoint slides advanced a lot too...... Participant CNC4 echoed Participant GNC3’s perception and said, “Some of my skills
related to DT were developed due to the needs of attending vocational skill competitions. If I did
not participate, I would not push myself to explore these new skills.” Building on that idea, Participant GNC1 stated, “The leadership of our college employed such competition as one of
the most important pathways for implementing digital transformation.” Nevertheless, challenges were still there when probing deeper into this finding. Attempts of
DT in the scenarios of competition were hard to be transferred and applied in real teaching
activities. When asked about the specific strategic changes at their program related to digital
transformation, participant CNC6 stated, To be honest, I think there was no application of such digital techs in competition when
conducting our daily teaching ...... Since the selection criteria of various teachers' vocational
skills competitions required the application of digital technologies, so when we participated
in such competitions, we would focus on demonstrating this point ......to show the judges
that we can use this or that......But in our regular teaching, because our college did not
provide us with very advanced equipment or force us to use them in teaching, so......

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Participant SNC6 from SNC expressed her perceptions on this issue more directly and
critically. She elaborated that, In last year's competition, where I got second prize, I felt more deeply that our digital use is
sometimes fake. We did so..... to fulfill the requirements of the competition, such as using
artificial intelligence (AR)...... but that was just to show a sample, make the judges know
that we can use AR to generate age-appropriate and engaging lesson plans in the course
Classroom Management for Young Children. But in reality, it can't really be practiced...... The emerging requirements of integrating digital technologies in vocational skills
competition served as influencing drivers for the majority of early childhood pre-service teacher
educators to initiate their application of some advanced digital technologies in early childhood
education context, or at least explore and make attempts. However, there was still a gap between
the demonstrated “can” in the competitions and the real “do” in their daily teaching. Summary of Findings for Research Question 1
Research question 1 focused on understanding the perceived changes ECPTE faculty
experienced related to DT, especially since the outbreak of the pandemic in 2020. It probed the
DT implementations that teachers observed and experienced in reality instead of the DT
presented and advocated in policy documents. Responses by participants led to the following
four key findings:
1. The COVID-19 pandemic boosted a sudden shift of early childhood pre-service teaching
mode from face-to-face to online. 2. The learning platform Xuexi Tong is an important vehicle for pre-service teacher
educators to implement DT.

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3. Booming digital education resource construction with full participation has contrary low
usage. 4. Emerging requirements from Vocational Education Skills Competitions are a driver of
ECPTE programs’ DT practice. All participants acknowledged the DT-related changes brought by the announcement of a
series of national DT promoting policies and the sudden outbreak of COVID-19 catalyzing the
development and implementation of some specific DT practices, such as teaching modes shifting
from offline to online during school closure and, thereafter, prevalent use of Xuexi Tong learning
platform in various scenarios, and the increasing construction of online courses and Vocational
Education Skills Competitions. However, concerns of unsatisfactory learning outcomes for pre- service preschool teachers, low usage of those already-built online courses and recourse, and the
application gap between what had been “shown” in competitions and the use in real instructions
were revealed and reflected by the interviewees in the process of transformation. Research Question 2: How Do Early Childhood Pre-Service Teacher Educators
Perceive Their Capabilities to Integrate Technology Into Their Instructional Practices?
In any educational reform in higher education, faculty, as practitioners of the reform, their
perception of the key concepts of the reform and their capabilities of conducting related practice
are essential influencing factors of their actual behaviors. This research question sought to
understand faculty’s perspectives on their own capabilities of integrating technologies into their
teaching practices and the capabilities they considered as important for DT implementation as
teacher educators in ECPTE programs. Three key findings floated up through data analysis. 1. Most teachers perceive their digital-related skills as weak but have low motivation to
improve.

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2. Awareness of DT is perceived by faculty as the prerequisite for enhancing related
capabilities. 3. The lack of high-quality DT training is an obstacle to better DT implementation. Finding 1: Most Teachers Perceive Their Digital-Related Skills as Weak but Have Low
Motivation to Improve
Of the 19 respondents, 14 considered their ability to use or integrate digital technologies
into their teaching and learning to be “relatively weak” (Participant CNC3), “ very shallow”
(Participant CNC1, SNC3, SNC5) or “have some basic information technology skills”
(Participant CNC5). When probed further on how they interpret “shallow,” they gave examples
such as making slides with PowerPoint, video editing, and basic online course editing, which are
commonly used in teaching. They further expressed that they could competently operate the
basic functions of these tasks but lacked the ability to utilize the more advanced functions of
these software and technologies. Participant CNC1 gave an example, stating, I can use PPT to create a slide deck. However, I cannot add eye-catching animation to
better illustrate some concepts, such as a more vivid demonstration of the rapid neuronal
changes in the brain of children from birth to three. Participant CNC4 added her struggles with a lack of understanding of digital technology
that resulted in hindering her ability to coach students for professional skills competitions, mentioning, I needed to integrate digital technologies when I coached my students to participate in
competitions as required by the rules. But, unlike other vocational preparation programs
such as excavator operation and automotive repair, as for a job caring young children who
cannot be treat as machine, it was really hard for me to think of what cutting-edge

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technologies were suitable for our competing projects in the early childhood education
context. Maybe I am just a little more closed off to information myself. There was an interesting finding that of these 14 participants, eight explicitly stated they
knew they were not competent in this area but “did not want to spend extra time learning about
it” (Participant CNC3) or they “did not have the motivation to look into it” (Participants CNC5, GNC4, SNC2) or “did not have the need to do” (Participant SNC4). For example, when asked
why she did not have much motivation to take the initiative to improve her digital literacy and
skills, Participant CNC3 explained with slight bemusement and a great deal of sincerity:
...... just did not think it’s necessary. I would like to use whatever technology that I already
mastered. However, if it requires me to spend extra energy to figure it out, I might resist it
from the bottom of my heart. I would reject it.Yes, it felt like too much of a hassle ...... I
don't think I have that much time or energy to master a new thing. During the later focus group discussions, this issue was re-emphasised by the participants in a
more concrete and vivid way. For example, CNC3 brought up the low motivation phenomenon
again and further explained the possible reasons in focus group at CNC. DT for me is more in the textual "requirements" of our ECPTE program’s development
goals......Our program will write DT in the strategic plan, but it is difficult to implement, I
think......DT is the school's construction “achievement,” which is actually not very relevant
to me.....As a teacher in my thirties who has yet to be rated as associate title, I have too
much work to accomplish and DT is not my priority. Some focus group participants from GNC and SNC resonated with this perception and had
similar feelings as well. Participant SNC5 illustrated this, with an example of when she was
encouraged to integrate digital technology into her instruction, through a metaphor, “It's like I

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could just eat an apple with my mouth, but you told me to use a very fancy set of cutlery because
that's the advanced way to do it.” Participant GNC4 added, “I acknowledged that I am a passive
learner and DT is the trend. But I would explore it and improve my competencies only when I
have extra energy to do so. Actually, when talking with you, I am worrying about my deadline
for another book editing project.”
In addition to believing that improving tech-related skills was not something considered to
be very necessary or urgent, participant CNC4 expressed what she considered to be a very
limited role for application of technologies in her daily teaching, stating, Within my existing knowledge. I don't think digital technologies are helpful for me
personally. Because as a teacher who teaches Infant and Toddler Health and Wellness and
Infant and Toddler Nutrition and Feeding, I need to teach my students how to communicate
with a little baby. Even though I used smart simulation dolls for my students to practice how
to properly hold an infant or how to put them to sleep, supporting the back of a simulated
baby's neck is completely different from supporting the back of a real child's neck......To put
a simulated doll to sleep, all I have to do is put a pacifier in its mouth and it stops crying, but
a real baby? I need to communicate with her with full presence, there is a flow of emotion. This is something technology cannot do ...... so what I need most is a real child. No matter
how smart a simulated doll is, it's a fake thing. In conclusion, participants from all three colleges shared their agreement that “DT is the
trend” (CNC1) and “DT creates new opportunities and we need to embrace it” (GNC5). But
more than two-thirds of the participants considered their capabilities to use or integrate digital
technologies into their teaching and learning to be weak. Further, almost half of them did not
want to improve such capabilities. The main reasons for teachers' low motivation was described

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as the belief that DT is more of an external requirement from the ECPTE programs instead of an
inner calling and does not match well with their own teaching needs in the context of early
childhood education. Further, they acknowledged that one's energy is limited, and DT learning is
not their priority. Finding 2: Awareness of DT is Perceived by Faculty as the Prerequisite For Enhancing
Related Capabilities
In discussing their feelings and experiences with DT during the interviews, nine
interviewees spontaneously expressed their “lack of clarity” and “lack of familiarity” with the
concept of Digital Transformation to the extent that they found it difficult to think systematically
about it, especially in early childhood teacher education. For instance, as a teacher educator with
nearly ten years of teaching experience at CNC, participant CNC4 revealed her concerns:
The first thing is that I need help understanding the concept of DT and what techniques can
be utilized within my area of expertise. It may be because I am not working in a tier 1 city or
a developed area, and my insights are limited, so I do not know how digital technologies can
really help me. Although she emphasized several times that her college's geographic location was in the
central part of China and is information-poor, which she thought might not be the case in
developed cities, the interviews found that at SNC, which is located in a developed city in the
eastern coastal area, there were still four faculty out of the seven participants who said that they
had not “seriously learned about DT” (SNC1) or were still “confused about the difference
between informatization and digitization” (SNC2). When asked, “What capabilities do you think are important for faculty working in early
childhood teacher education programs who are integrating technology into their instruction?”

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participants’ responses were aligned with the weakness of technology-related skills being very
common and needing to be improved. Therefore, the majority of faculty thought that mastery of
digital technologies and knowing how to integrate technologies with instruction were the top two
necessary capabilities (Figure 2). More importantly, 10 participants firmly stated that the
awareness of DT is the first key step for real transformation. Participants from different colleges
explained the importance of DT awareness in detail, including GNC3, SNC1, and CNC2:
I think, first of all, we have to be aware of DT. It has to be intrinsic. There must be such
motivation to support us in doing this. Otherwise, I would think that maybe even if there are
a lot of policies or some external pressure given by the college as a driving force, it is
actually not good enough to do it. (Participant GNC3)
First of all, teachers must be aware of the need to proactively integrate digital technology
into their teaching. Only with this awareness will they be able to initiate change and
possibly learn more specific competencies and skills. (Participant SNC1)
I think the most important prerequisite is that faculty consciously and actively think: What I
am doing now can be transformed into digital resources or used to become more efficient
and convenient. (Participant CNC2)
Figure 2
Expected DT-Related Capabilities for ECPTE Faculty

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It is interesting to note that some participants also mentioned that teacher educators should
have greater collaboration skills in enhancing DT implementation. Participant CNC1 revealed
that when constructing digital curriculum resources, she found out that when a small group of
faculty with diverse experience but all familiar with the content of one particular course worked
together, “it was more efficient and powerful than relying on only one person to generate the
course materials. Thus, great collaboration skills are vital in DT implementation if we are going
to develop more high-quality digital content.” Participant CNC5 recognized her point of view
and shared that the first time she started to use Xuexi Tong was because “Some senior faculty
members invited me to join their curriculum-developing group, and they employed Xuexi Tong. They modeled to me how to start this journey.” Therefore, peer learning and collaboration were
considered valuable to integrate technology into their instructional practices. As discussed above, most of the participants felt that their understanding of the DT concept
was not clear and that they needed a deeper understanding. Only when they have better
knowledge of DT and have built up their DT awareness can they better practice DT from the
bottom of their hearts.

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Finding 3: The lack of high-quality DT training is an obstacle to better DT implementation
Participants identified a significant lack of high-quality DT-related training. Eleven
participants expressed their concerns about the very limited opportunities provided by their
colleges or their ECPTE programs. Some of them stated that based on their own experience, they
never attended any DT-related training, or, if there was training available provided by their
colleges or programs, they just did not know. As participant CNC6 described, “It seems as if the
college is not providing any relevant training at all, nor is it encouraging the faculty to participate. So I'm even more unaware of DT as well in this atmosphere.” She added later, elaborating on a
feeling of being “ill-informed,” saying, “If there were an opportunity to tell us at least what other
tools or platforms we could go for, then we wouldn't be limited to just using Xuexi Tong.” In the
focus group discussion that followed, this statement of hers was corroborated by several teachers
discussing the same question. For example, when participant CNC3 questioned and asked
participant CNC6: “There was a special training about DT on campus last time, didn't you go?” The other four participants in the focus group were also all unaware that a training had taken
place and had not attended. Based on this dialogue, it was apparent that information about DT-related training was not
effectively communicated to the faculty, at least within the CNC context. As the interviews
progressed, it was clear that such a phenomenon did not only exist at CNC but also in the other
two colleges, SNC and GNC. Two participants who were serving as leaders in those two colleges
stated that the administrative team did offer targeted training sections especially during the
school closure, via Wechat group or Tencent Meeting, to teach the faculty how to conduct online
teaching with Xuexi Tong. The trainers were from the company that developed the platform.

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However, such training was discontinued after the pandemic. Then, as stated by these two
participants, SNC and GNC both invited experts of DT to give lectures or encouraged faculty to
attend training hosted by local educational bureaus. However, both of them recognized that
compared with other professional topics, training opportunities of DT were limited. Participant
GNC1 stated, “It was not easy to find trainers who are familiar with DT and also knowledgeable
about early childhood education or pre-service education. It is multidisciplinary.” Although at SNC and GNC there were some training opportunities, the majority of
participants from these two colleges still claimed that they did not attend such training or were
not quite clear about such information. Participant SNC4’s response provided further explanation
for this phenomenon:
Each summer our college published a number of training themes and places for participants
in each theme. But the number of people who could participate in each theme was very
small. A theme related to digital teaching and learning might only allow 1-2 teachers to
attend. Then there were few opportunities for other teachers who don't participate to
improve their ideas and skills. Participant CNC2’s experience also added to Participant SNC4’s observation and statement. She revealed that she had been selected as a trainee for two different DT training programs, both
of which were conducted off-campus by other organizations. But, “When I went as a
representative of my program and finished the training, it was over. No one asked me to share
the content with my colleagues later. As far as I know, this is common.” When asked, “What kind of support do you want or need as you continue to implement DT
in your program?” Almost all participants considered high-quality training as a “must.” The lack
of high-quality DT training is one of the major factors that prevent DT practices from being

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effective (GNC3, GNC6, SNC4, CNC4). Then, when discussing what kind of DT-related
training they were eager for, the faculty members’ training wish list was aligned with their
perceptions of DT-related capabilities for ECPTE faculty, as shown in Table 5. Table 5
Desired DT-Related Training by ECPTE Faculty
Desired DT-related training content or format by ECPTE faculty
Number of
Participants Learn more hands-on and specific content on DT
8
Many times, we were exposed to DT-related lectures that seemed to be very "advanced" but were not very "grounded" or practical. Or the content may only be suitable for teachers who want to win prizes in competitions. Its audience might be more limited. When the college
let everyone listen to it, everyone just listened and left or did not listen at all. So, it is crucial to
choose targeted content that will actually provide real help to every teacher's DT practice. (Participant CNC3)
Need systematic support at the administrative level to ensure after-training practice 8
For training to be effective, I think it needs a systematic approach. The content of the
training should be something that all faculty members will use immediately, rather than
"disconnecting" the training from the practice. Also, teachers need to be given time to explore new knowledge in these schools.(Participant SNC2)
Desire for innovative format of DT training
W 6
e found that even if we had invited a senior professor in this field to give a speech on DT, it was still a very traditional way. He did not communicate with us in a digitalized way, and some things were theoretical and not very practical. (Participant GNC1)
Learn how to integrate digital technologies and instruction
4 The training given by the technology companies was basically an introduction to how to
use the software, and the lectures given by the experts were basically in the context of a broad
pedagogical concept, with little integration of the technology with our profession to tell us how
to apply it. (Participant GNC4)
Learn about DT practices at other ECPTE programs or colleges
I believe that there must be some "first movers" in an industry for a new thing. However, 2
because of our limited vision and information gap, we can't see what others are doing. ...... We need to know what other districts and colleges are doing to promote DT. (Participant GNC6)
When probed about the need for innovative format and content of DT-related training, Participant GNC2’s experience was unique in that she was one of only two participants across all

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19 interviewees who perceived herself as good at utilizing digital resources in her instruction. When talking about digital capabilities, she described herself as a person who “likes to be
creative and innovative.” She was under 30 when she participated in the study and was in her
third year of teaching at GNC. She uttered the following quote in her slightly questioning and
agitated tone, DT training is supposed to deliver innovative ideas and practices. However, the limited
training we currently receive is just like a traditional lecture, with the trainer reading slides
from a podium. I would like to ask the speaker: If innovation is important, why not
demonstrate it in your teaching? How have you integrated technology into your instruction?
I don't see any innovation in your approach, which seems very dogmatic, and I strongly
oppose it. Therefore, according to the participants’ responses, DT-related training opportunities are
very limited and not well communicated within the colleges themselves. And, high-quality and
hands-on training is necessary for DT implementation, especially based on early childhood
education contexts. Meanwhile, teachers are looking forward to innovative forms of training that
can incorporate digital technologies right into the training process. Summary of Findings for Research Question 2
Research question 2 sought to understand faculty’s perspectives on their own capabilities of
integrating technologies into their teaching practices and the capabilities they thought as
important for DT implementation as teacher educators in ECPTE programs. Responses by
participants led to the following three key findings:
1. Most teachers perceive their digital-related skills as weak but have low motivation to
improve.

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2. Awareness of DT is perceived by faculty as the prerequisite for enhancing related
capabilities. 3. The lack of high-quality DT training is an obstacle to better DT implementation. The majority of participants thought they were weak at mastering digital technologies or
integrating them into their daily teaching practices. For more than half of the participants, the
current DT practice they experienced in their ECPTE programs, such as DT-related requirements
in competitions and building online courses, were more of tasks than something they felt
compelled to do. They thought that mastery of digital technologies and knowing how to integrate
technologies with instruction were the top two necessary capabilities for DT. Further, half of the
participants agreed that the awareness of DT “is the first key step for real transformation.” There
was also a shortage of high-quality hands-on and innovative DT-related training, especially
training that could integrate the features into the early childhood realm. Research Question 3: What Are Early Childhood Pre-Service Teacher Educators’ Perceptions About Implementing Digital Transformation, Particularly Regarding Online
Practicum With Young Children?
The third research question sought to probe participants’ perceptions on implementing DT
in online practicum with young children, inviting their reflections on what are possible
opportunities and challenges that related to effective early childhood teacher preparation. Questions such as “How would you describe visual practicum/fieldwork in your program for
trainee teachers, if any?” and “What are the challenges and opportunities of implementing digital
transformation into online practicum with young children?” were used to invite insights and
spark reflections. The following three key findings were identified according to interviews and
focus group discussions:

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1. DT implementation in online practicum is still very much in the initial stages of
exploration. 2. Breaking time and space constraints and simulation features create new opportunities for
technology-empowered practicum. 3. Online practicum cannot replace real child-teacher interactions for early childhood pre- service teacher preparation
The discussions below contextualized the findings, revealed challenges that ECPTE
programs faced for online practicum, and discussed the possible opportunities of online
practicum and other digital technology-empowered practicum according to the specificity of
early childhood pre-service teacher education. Finding 1: DT Implementation In Online Practicum Is Still Very Much In The Initial
Stages Of Exploration
Among all the participants, on-site practicum is considered as an essential component of
preparing qualified future early childhood teachers aiming to “ensure that they are familiar with
the environment and daily routines” (CNC1) and “master the professional skills in real
interactions with children under 6” (SNC4). Most participants from all the three ECPTE
programs acknowledged that the pandemic severely impacted students going to preschools for
on-site practicum. During the school closure time, on-site practicums were almost stopped for all
the three colleges. CNC and GNC did not provide any online practicum for the students at that
time due to the closure of preschools and no supportive infrastructure to conduct virtual
practicum (Participant CNC1, CNC4, CNC5, GNC 5, GNC6). They both chose to postpone
students’ practicum until they got back to the campus and meanwhile increased students’ practical training during class-time (participants CNC3 and GNC3). As described by CNC6,

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During that time, students couldn’t go to the preschools for practicum and we didn’t employ
any virtual practicum for two reasons. First, the local preschools were also shut-down and
there were no children there for us to virtually connect with. Second, we did not think about
online practicum because our college did not have that kind of advanced infrastructure to
enable such attempts. But more than half of participants from CNC mentioned that they adjusted their curriculum
design and increased the time for practical training. For example, CNC6 continued, I was teaching Preschool Physical Education at that time, so I asked some of the students to
play the role of toddlers and one played the role of teacher to design and organize physical
activities. I was also quarantined at home, so I used a video call to observe and analyze their
activities. Similar to participant CNC6, participants from GNC also mentioned that they intentionally
provided more professional skill enhancing tasks for students to practice during the semester that
they could not go to any field-experiences. These included: writing science teaching plans for
young children, watching children play videos, and analyzing with prompts (participants GNC2
and GNC3). Only SNC experimented with online practicum through two approaches to provide students
field-experiences virtually. Participant SNC1 described, “One of the primary forms was that we
recorded some preschool teaching and caring activities which covers key experience and skills
for students to watch so that they could get familiar with preschool daily routines and children's
play activities.” Participant SNC3 added, “Through such intentionally selected and provided
videos, we asked students to answer questions or write teaching plans based on what they
observed, and then course lecturers would give feedback.” The other form was that the pre-

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service teachers were connected in a large group with teachers and children in preschool. SNC
has a remote practicum classroom, where both the pre-service teachers and the preschools have
the same equipment at their end and could be connected for real-time observation and
interactions (Participants SNC1, SNC2, SNC3) Participant SNC2 expressed her concern of this
form of virtual practicum in the focus group, stating, However, we did not use this kind of real-time practicum much because it required the
linked preschools, especially the classroom teachers to be prepared in advance and the
presence of technicians from both sides for debugging. Participant SNC 5 further explained, The live-connected practicum required extensive technical preparation. However, the
camera struggled to capture children's speech and behavior clearly. Crucially, the
technology did not enable each student to interact with the children in the classroom. We
only observed the teacher's activities and had discussions afterward, resulting in minimal
interaction between pre-service teachers and children. Therefore, after COVID-19, SNC still emphasized the on-site practicum as their primary
approach for pre-service teachers to gain real field-practice. Participant SNC3 explained in detail, The online video resources that were already available were used as an extended reference
for students and for flexible use by the faculty as a resource library currently. We believe in
not operating virtually if you can operate physically. The most important aspect of teaching
and learning is always to let students experience real human relationships and interactions in
real-life scenarios. Thus, in interviews with SNC teachers, they expressed that despite their active attempts at
two different forms of online practicum and the school’s provision of the classroom dedicated to

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distance practicum, teachers’ attitudes toward the online practicum were not very positive. It was
still considered a supplemental form of increasing the pre-service teachers’ practical experience. Participants from both GNC and CNC expressed their curiosity and anticipation about
online practicum. “It would be helpful if I could switch screens at any time to let my students see
the kinds of activities that really happen in preschools” (participant CNC5). However, more than
half of the teachers at both colleges agreed that the lack of digital-related infrastructure is a
tangible impediment to realizing online or other tech-empowered practicum. It is worth noting that, when invited to write down three DT matters teacher educators
thought should be most prioritized for improvement in the focus groups, their most prominent
needs turned out to be the most basic campus WIFI installation or speed boost, a computer for
each person in the faculty office, and even upgrades to the school library’s literature search
function, among others. Such needs were not highlighted in the individual interviews. In both
GNC and CNC, participants describe their on-campus WIFI as “very slow and with really weak
signal” and “students need to go out of the classroom and raise their phones to send out
messages.” Moreover, faculty members in CNC complained about their library system with a
sense of helplessness and anger in the focus group discussion, as Participant CNC1 stated, “ Our
students had no idea how to search for quality literature through literature websites. Because our
school library did not even have a subscription to the service from Chinese literature
databases...” Participant CNC2 echoed, “Usually, when I wrote a paper, I had to buy a
membership to the literature database by myself, not to mention the students. This also brought
great inconvenience to faculty for doing research.” Not only at the CNC, but also at the GNC and
the SNC, discussions about basic internet and office facilities sparked deep feelings of resonance
and dissatisfaction among teacher educators in the focus groups.

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Figure 3 presents the desired improvements of DT implementation that were gathered from
participants from both indiviual interviews and focus groups. As shown, while there were a
number of desired improvements raised by participants, the most stated desire for improvement
was in the form of related infrastructure. Figure 3
Desired Improvements of DT Implementation by ECPTE Faculty
Overall, the implementation of online practicum in the three colleges were in the initial
experimental stage for several reasons. During the pandemic, SNC experimented with online
practicums by systematically recording a series of videos covering key experiences in the
professional work tasks of early childhood teachers and by providing students with the
opportunity to observe preschool classes live and remotely. However, the latter was not
frequently used due to the high level of technical support required. More importantly, pre-service
teacher educators felt that students would not be able to experience authentic teacher-child
interactions through remote placements. GNC and CNC did not conduct remote practicum. The
lack of relevant infrastructure, such as high-speed on-campus WIFI and related support

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equipment, was an additional barrier to implementing online practicum, and an area they
expressed needing improvement. Finding 2: Breaking Time and Space Constraints and Simulation Features Create New
Opportunities for Technology-Empowered Practicum
In additional to the challenges related to online practicum, 12 participants revealed the
possible benefits of technology-empowered practicum, which are mostly based on the two
unique features that the digital technologies have: remote technologies can break barriers of time
and space constraints, and Virtual Reality (VR) can provide virtual scenarios that students do not
often have access to. More than half of the nineteen participants mentioned that different forms of online
practicum can break the boundaries of time and space, such as remote practicum classroom and
video libraries employed by SNC. “These virtual approaches provided opportunities for students
to ‘see’ their future workplace and know more about children,” explained Participant CNC5. When probed further on this point, focus group participants highlighted the challenges that
current on-site practicum encountered, which could be solved partially by digital technologies:
very limited time for on-site practicum due to tight teaching arrangements, laborious logistics for
organizing on-site practicum, and not enough local early care centers. Discussing the issue of limited time for on-site practicums and the hands-on attributes of
early childhood education majors, GNC6 stated, Students’ current field-experience were not enough. Although we have an on-site
observation or short-time practicum once a semester for 3-5 days and an intensive practicum
for about five weeks in the last academic year, the opportunities for students to understand

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their future teaching career and to practice all the skills in the real workplace were still very
insufficient. Moreover, logistics for arranging on-site practicum were a “headache,” as described by
participant SNC3 and participant CNC1. Since the average number of students in one class was
40-60 for all the three colleges, and a teacher usually needed to handle more than one class of
students, the workload was heavy. Participant CNC1 elaborated, It was very time-consuming and demanding for us to contact preschools, vehicles and then
take all the students to the practicum sites. Some preschools were far away, so there were
many potential safety risks for students’ management. Thus, some participants stated that online practicum increased the opportunities for pre- service teachers to expose themselves to future workplaces without handling logistics and break
the time and space constraints. However, how such virtual practicum could be conducted more
efficiently and enhance interactions with young children needed to be explored (participants
SNC3 and SNC7). In addition, for pre-service infant and toddler teachers, “there were not enough local early
care centers...and it was impossible for a crowd of students to stay and observe a small group of
babies in one classroom, so we need more centers to meet our practicum needs” said participant
CNC4, who was teaching infant and toddler care courses for more than five years. Therefore, “If
virtual technologies could provide more experiential opportunities for our students to interact
with highly simulated intelligent babies who behave like a typical child, it would be great,” she
continued. Participants from SNC and GNC also highlighted the advantages of using VR to create
scenarios that are “irreversible” and “dangerous” in the educational process for students to make

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simulated practices. Participant SNC6 explained, “For example, we cannot have every pre- service teacher meet a child with food poisoning or some kind of accidents in their practicum. But we can use VR to simulate such scenarios so that students can learn how to deal with them.” Furthermore, just as participant CNC4 hoped, SNC5 also expressed her expectation that digital
technology would provide highly simulated “typical children” for future preschool teacher
preparation. Precisely because some harm or negative impact of educational guidance is irreversible for
children, it would be great if our pre-service teachers could have a simulated child to
interact with that doesn't involve ethical or harm issues. Meanwhile, for some hands-on training that consumes particular materials, employing VR
technologies can reduce waste of real materials during students’ practicing process, for example, baby formula. Participant GNC3 shared that she had integrated VR into her vocational skill
competition project to demonstrate how to make baby formula in steps with a VR helmet on to
operate without wasting real formula powder. She said, Our college asked the developer to create a virtual program for this skill...but the outcome is
still unsatisfactory due to their limited technologies...I mean, I like this idea and we
developed the demo, but it still could not give me a good sense of operation by steps. I hope
this virtual program could be improved so we can apply it in daily instructions for students
to practice. In sum, most participants expressed further expectations for technology-empowered
practicums, believing they can compensate for shortcomings in current on-site practicums. For
example, online practicum has no time and space constraints, which can increase the time for
students to understand the educational field. Further, VR allows students to be exposed to some

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high-risk emergencies to practice in advance, and it can also reduce the waste of real materials in
students' operational practice. However, the form of online practicum and the technologies that
support online practicum still need to be optimized and continuously explored. Finding 3: Online Practicum Cannot Replace Real Child-Teacher Interactions for Early
Childhood Pre-Service Teacher Preparation
When asked about “What cannot be replaced in the process of DT for ECPTE programs?”
in the focus group discussions, all three focus group participants made it clear that “the real on- site child-teacher interactions” is the key part that cannot be replaced. While the one-on-one
interviews addressed the potential problems of online practicums by some participants, the focus
groups in the three colleges were more adamant that online practicums could not replace real
teacher-child interactions when they discussed the ‘can't be replaced by technology’ part of the
group discussion and also described more details about why real teache-child interactions could
not be replaced in a social constructed context. While innovative digital technology-empowered practicum allowed faculty to see some
opportunities for future pre-service teacher preparation, almost all respondents emphasized that “technology cannot replace the emotional flow of authentic teacher-child interactions”
(Participant CNC3) and the “kind of power that shapes an educator’s sense of purpose”
(Participant SNC5). Participants CNC2, CNC6, GNC4, GNC6, and SNC2 highlighted the power
of an “immersed” environment to cultivate pre-service teachers’ professionalism, mentioning
that from the moment pre-service teachers step into preschools, they are in an authentic
environment where they see the teacher interacting with young children. These environments are
created intentionally for children’s cognitive and emotional development, where the three or four
years old children's responses are real and unpredictable, and where all the information is varied

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and changing. In the focus group discussion at CNC, participant CNC6 further explained this in a
very strong voice, stating, On-site practicum changes students' perceptions of teaching. Initially, many pre-service
teachers hesitate to become preschool teachers. However, seeing children's smiles and bright
eyes during hands-on practice often changes their minds. Genuine, loving interactions
strengthen their commitment to the profession. Participant CNC3, a teacher educator with ten years of experience, echoed this statement and
shared her perspective fueled by the heated group discussion, Even the most sophisticated digital programs are human-designed and predictable, but
children are not. When my students role-played ‘toddlers’ and simulated teaching activities, everything went smoothly. However, in real preschools, they faced unexpected responses
from children and struggled. This highlights that pre-service teachers can only truly develop
their teaching skills in authentic environments with real children. Nine out of nineteen participants stated that “DT is a means, not an end” (Participant CNC1, CNC2, CNC3, GNC1, GNC4, GNC5 ,SNC1, SNC3, SNC5). These participants shared a
common perception that: early childhood education aims at the holistic development of a child’s
social, emotional, cognitive and physical needs in order to build a solid and broad foundation for
lifelong learning and well-being. The integration of digital technologies should be for this
purpose. The ECPTE programs used technical means to keep up with the pace of the times and
meet the changing needs of children as digital citizen, but the fundamental purpose of education
can not be changed. They wanted digital transformation not to be conducted for change's sake
but to make technology work for those purposes. At the present time, they saw their program as

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having a long way to go in using technology to improve efficiency and enhance students' practical skills. Summary of Findings for Research Question 3
The third research question investigated participants’ perceptions of implementing DT in
online practicum in ECPTE context. The environments for conducting virtual practicum during
the pandemic and afterwards were described. And, challenges of online practicum and possible
opportunities for technology-empowered practicum were identified. Three key findings were
revealed according to participants’ responses. 1. DT implementation in online practicum is still very much in the initial stages of
exploration. 2. Breaking time and space constraints and simulation features create new opportunities for
technology-empowered practicum. 3. Online practicum cannot replace real child-teacher interactions for early childhood pre- service teacher preparation
As for online-practicum, only SNC experimented with two forms of providing virtual
experience of practicum for students during the pandemic, however, all of the participants from
SNC considered such new approaches as a supplemental form for students’ practicum due to
limited teacher-children interactions and high technical requirements for live-streamed
connection with preschool classrooms. Neither CNC nor GNC tried online practicum because of
the lack of infrastructure. The most stated desire for DT implementation improvement was to
increase infrastructure among all three colleges, including on-campus WIFI and working
computers for faculty. Furthermore, the real interactions between pre-service teachers and young
children were considered as an irreplaceable component in ECPTE practicums. However, more

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than half of the participants acknowledged that digital-technologies held opportunities, especially
AR created new opportunities for increasing pre-service teachers’ exposure to their future work
and possible high-risky scenarios without harms. Emergent Themes
In one-on-one interviews and focus groups, one word that was not mentioned in the
interview questions was always raised by the interviewees: Time. This emergent theme is not a
finding directly under a given research question but, rather, overlays faculty’s perceptions on DT. Time, Time, Time
Time, and the corresponding energy of the participants, permeated the responses related to
DT. Squeezed private time and multitasking parallel work patterns created complex emotions
about the implementation of DT. Participant CNC3, who was in her thirties and had been
described as a peer model in CNC focus group discussion by her younger colleagues, expressed
her struggles with a low and helpless tone, We were stuck in a rat race. Balancing family and work is tough for our age group, making
"change" burdensome. Achieving an advanced job title and handling college tasks are too
stressful. If mastering new apps or digital techniques isn't essential, I would choose to give
up. Her colleague at CNC, participant CNC4, who was in the program leadership position
during the one-on-one interview, also shared a similar sentiment as a working mom. Besides teaching and other commitments, we often coach students in various competitions. I
declined your interview last month because I was busy coaching for a provincial
competition. My work is so demanding that I can't separate it from my personal life. I put
my kids to bed at 9:30 pm, then work until 11:00 pm.

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Two participants indicated that they had hoped to choose this job because they believed that
as a college teacher in early childhood education there was enough time for self-study and would
not be too busy. However, when asked if their current job status met their expectations, Participant SNC7 responded, Not at all. I became a teacher educator at SNC to find more time for reading and selfimprovement, leaving my preschool teaching job. However, I still have little time to read
due to various demands on my time. When asked at the end of the one-on-one interview what support was still needed in
implementing DT, Participant SNC6 echoed what was heard from others, It was to give me back my time and initiative. These are connected, as seen with the creation
of digital curriculum resources, which has become a ‘task’ rather than something I want to
do. Without time but still needing to meet deadlines, I might produce low-quality content
quickly just to comply, never revisiting it once finished. Six participants from all three colleges highlighted “too many non-teaching tasks” that they
had. And three participants openly recognized that they do not have time to prepare for their
class teaching. Many of them prepared their teaching plans and materials during the weekend or “squeezed” one to two hours per week to do so, which aligned with their reasons why they did
not have time to “explore” online resources. As stated by Participant SNC6 with a hint of irony, “As a teacher, lesson planning seemed to turn out to be the thing I had the least time for.” Participant GNC3 had a similar feeling stating, “Well......I rarely assigned open-ended questions
on Xuexi Tong to my students because I just didn’t have the time to read carefully and grade
them. I gave them multiple choices, so Xuexi Tong could grade them automatically.”

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Such reflections can also explain why participants of the focus groups at SNC and GNC
both expressed their hope that, ultimately, digital technologies would ease the burden on faculty
in ECPTE programs rather than further increase it. Conclusion
This chapter provided an overview of findings related to the three research questions for this
study. ECPTE faculty’s perceptions and reflections on DT implementation in three colleges were
deeply discussed, including experienced changes related to DT, especially after the outbreak of
COVID-19, perceptions of teachers’ capabilities of integrating technologies into teaching
practices, and reflections on online practicum under ECPTE context. The participants shared in
detail about their experience, insights, struggles and expectation on DT implementation. Although many participants described themselves as passive learners and were pushed-forward
by exterior policies or procedures to transform and embrace digital technologies, they had
initiated the DT practice to varying degrees. Meanwhile, new opportunities brought by DT, especially the application of Xuexi Tong in instruction and AR in practicums, were highlighted
by participants. However, all the participants emphasized the uniqueness of the profession of
being an early childhood teacher and firmly believed that the real interaction between teachers
and young children cannot be replaced by any kind of technologies. This study generated ten key
findings that identified changes of DT within the ECPTE programs and opportunities and
challenges for this transformation journey pragmatically and personally. Table 6 summarizes the
ten key findings of this study. Table 6
Key Findings: Changes, Capabilities, Challenges and Opportunities of DT in ECPTE Programs
Changes, Capabilities, Challenges and Opportunities of DT in ECPTE Programs

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Research Question 1: What Have Early Childhood pre-service Teacher Educators at the College Level in China Experienced in Their Programs Related to Digital
Transformation?
Research Question 2: How
Do Early Childhood pre- service Teacher Educators Perceive Their Capabilities to
Integrate Technology Into Their Instructional Practices?
Research Question 3: What are
early childhood pre-service
teacher educators’ perceptions about implementing digital
transformation, particularly
regarding online practicum with
young children?
Key
Findin
g 1
The COVID-19 pandemic boosted a sudden shift of early
childhood pre-service teaching modality from face-to-face to
online. Most teachers perceive their digital-related skills as weak
but have low motivation to
improve. DT implementation in online practicum is still very much in
the initial stages of exploration. Key
Findin
g 2
The learning platform Xuexi
Tong is an important vehicle for pre-service teacher educators to
implement DT. Awareness of DT is perceived by faculty as the prerequisite for enhancing
related capabilities. Breaking time and space
constraints and simulation
features create new opportunities
for technology-empowered
practicum. Key
Findin
g 3
Booming digital education
resource construction with full
participation has contrary low
usage. The lack of high-quality DT
training is an obstacle to
better DT implementation. Online practicum cannot replace
real child-teacher interactions for early childhood pre-service
teacher preparation Key
Findin
g 4
Emerging requirements from
Vocational Education Skills Competitions are a driver of
ECPTE programs’ DT practice. N/A N/A

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Chapter Five: Discussion and Recommendations for Practice
The purpose of this study was to understand the experiences and perceptions of early
childhood education faculty in China on Digital Transformation (DT) in Early Childhood Pre- service Teacher Education Programs (ECPTE) at the college level. Although there have been
rising numbers of national policies advocating for DT in education and promoting teachers’ digital literacy in China in recent years, studies focusing on DT in pre-service teacher education
are scarce, and there are even fewer studies on the digitalization of early childhood pre-service
teacher education, in particular (K. Li et al., 2022). Therefore, this study conducted nineteen one- on-one semi-structured interviews and three focus groups with faculty who worked in three
different ECPTE programs to investigate the following three research questions:
1. What have early childhood pre-service teacher educators at the college level in China
experienced in their programs related to digital transformation?
2. How do early childhood pre-service teacher educators perceive their capabilities to
integrate technology into their instructional practices?
3. What are early childhood pre-service teacher educators’ perceptions about implementing
digital transformation, particularly regarding online practicum with young children?
Through these three questions, this study gathered rich data from the faculty’s perspective
on DT implementation, with insights on how to scaffold the future implementation of DT in
ECPTE programs. The purpose of this chapter is to discuss the study’s findings in relation to
prior research and Turner’s Liminality Concept (Turner, 1967), as well as to offer
recommendations for better implementation of DT in ECPTE programs and further development
of DT-related policies. This chapter will also discuss the limitations and delimitations of this
research and suggest areas for future research before concluding the study.

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Discussion of Findings
This section discusses the findings from the study, by research question, within scholarly
literature and Turner’s Liminality Concept (Turner, 1967) conceptual framework. Discussion of Findings Research Question 1
Research question one sought to explore the actual experiences and perceptions of ECPTE
faculty related to DT, especially after the outbreak of COVID-19. Similar to findings from K. Li
et al. (2022) and Mohebi and Meda (2021), this study also revealed that the pandemic was an
irresistible force that changed the modality of ECPTE pre-service teacher education “overnight”
from offline to online. It is noteworthy that “too sudden” was a phrase used frequently by the
participants when they were describing such a modality shift. There was no systematic, strategic
thinking about DT from the organizational level to the individual level, as half of the participants
expressed they were not clear about the concept of DT. As previous researchers have noted, most
teacher preparation programs are unprepared for such sudden and large-scale shifts both in terms
of experience and human resources (Ogbonnaya et al., 2020; Scull et al., 2020). Many teachers
engaged in a mere shift online and not particularly to strategic online teaching (Crawford et al., 2020).Moreover, participants perceived the instruction through the widely used learning platform
Xuexi Tong as a double-edged sword. On the one hand, benefits of online teaching in helping
ECPTE faculty reduce the burden of grading assignments, increasing students’ participation in
large-scale classrooms, and achieving student-centered flipped classroom instruction were
identified; on the other hand, more than half of the participants expressed concerns about
students’ learning outcomes, especially the hands-on professional skills needed. This concern
corroborates findings of previous studies: the importance of face-to-face interactions with young

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children make online coursework a challenge for ECPTE programs (K. Li et al., 2022; Timmons
et al., 2021; Yamamura & Tsustsui, 2021). Although Heafner (2022) pointed out that with
forethought and purposeful programmatic planning, virtual teacher preparation holds promise
when implemented, in this study, such elements were not identified based on the nineteen one- on-one interviews and three focus groups. Further, although at the policy level the construction of e-course resources and integration
of digital technologies in pre-service Vocational Education Skills Competitions were strongly
advocated, they were not as effective as ECPTE programs expected in promoting DT at the
practice level. Common low usage of the already-built e-courses and resources in actual daily
instruction made the participants reflect on their construction without well-understood
developing guidelines and criteria for evaluating the quality of such digital resources or MOOCs. This finding substantiates and complements previous early childhood teacher education research. Recent research on DT implementation in university education in China highlighted that less
than 40% of administrators stated that their institutions had policies or regulations for MOOCs
and online course development among 50 universities that deployed online courses (Miao et al., 2023). Also, the lack of consistent course design and development standards makes assessment
and accreditation difficult (Gabi et al., 2016). According to Turner’s liminality theory, when organizations or individuals are moving from
a well-known and established structure or context to one that is new and unfamiliar, to be ‘no
longer’ and simultaneously also ‘not yet,’ such ‘neither here nor there’ period can be described
as a liminal period (Turner, 1969). Vial (2019) clearly illustrates DT as a dynamic process in
which organizations seek to alter their value-creation paths, which are empowered by digital
technologies through managing structural changes and organizational barriers.

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As for the three ECPTE programs, all the perceived changes described by participants had
demonstrated their initial steps of DT as organizations. However, according to Hong and Ma
(2020), the current transit state of the ECPTE program is more like a hybrid presentation of
Education 2.0 (when the roles of teachers and students changed from teacher-centered to student- centered) and Education 3.0 (when the student-centered approach was dominant in the classroom, and virtual learning appeared following the popularity of MOOCs). Based on the participants’ descriptions, the implementation of DT in all three ECPTE programs had not yet exhibited the
characteristics of Education 4.0, when all forms of automation are used for educational purposes
(Fayda-Kinik, 2022; Hong & Ma, 2020). Nor had it revealed any intentional, systematic, and
strategic planning on enhancing pre-service teachers’ pedagogical knowledge, skills, and
dispositions through their online experiences at the programmatic level (Bakia et al., 2012;
Heafner, 2022). Therefore, the findings suggest that the interviewed ECPTE programs in China
were in their liminal phases of digital transformation and still have a long journey to evolve. Discussion of Findings Research Question 2
The second research question focused on understanding ECPTE faculty’s perspectives on
their capabilities of integrating technologies into their teaching practices. Notably, this study
revealed that more than two-thirds of the participants considered their digital-related capabilities
weak and shallow. Previous studies identified similar challenges of DT in Chinese higher
education, stating that the limited use of digital technologies in faculty’s daily instructions can
create barriers to the changes in learning outcomes that DT hopes to bring about (Liu et al., 2019).Further, more than half of the participants expressed low motivation to improve their
digital-related skills. The reported reasons for such a passive attitude included the perception that

126
DT was an external mandate from the ECPTE programs rather than something driven by their
personal interests or benefits. Moreover, the digital technologies participants could access did not
align well with the typical teaching needs in early childhood teacher preparation, especially for
teaching hands-on professional skills. Additionally, the faculty’s multitasking parallel work
patterns created resistance to any extra tasks related to DT. Therefore, enhancing such skills was
not their top priority. Furthermore, data from both interviews and focus groups highlighted the
lack of high-quality training opportunities for faculty in ECPTE programs, especially on how to
integrate digital technologies in the early childhood context. Researchers have pointed out that
such resistance and inertia to applying technologies to instruction, and inadequate digital literacy
and digital teaching capacities of faculty, have become limiting factors that hinder successful DT
in HEIs and need immediate focus and strengthening (Chen, 2016; Cheng et al., 2022; Han et al., 2022; Liu et al., 2019; M. Li et al., 2022; Miao et al., 2023). Looking at this through the lens of Liminality theory, a deeper understanding of the
dynamic and dialect relationship between ECPTE programs in transition and the individuals in
the midst of the transition is generated. A fundamental application of the liminality construct
within organizational contexts pertains to elucidating individuals’ transitions amidst varied states, circumstances, and professional identities (Söderlund & Borg, 2018), which means undergoing a
liminality process provokes an individual identity change needed for adjusting to a new context, generally because of a change in the organization (Beech, 2011; Ladge et al., 2012). Thus, the
liminal phase of ECPTE programs in DT has been associated with the reconstruction of teacher
educators’ identities. During the transformation process, it is worth pondering who they were, who they are, who they are becoming, and who they would like to become (Conroy & O’Leary- Kelly, 2014).

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According to participants’ responses from the three colleges, they are currently the DT
implementers and change-makers through their initial or limited DT practices. Even these
behaviors were, to some extent, “forced” by external factors. Moreover, they are expected to
become a digital teacher “who is proficient in technological competencies and pedagogy
appropriate to their field of expertise” (Fayda-Kinik, 2022, p.32). However, it was sensed that
based on the frequently highlighted need for “face-to-face teacher-child interaction,” “hands-on
experience,” and “real emotional flow” by participants, they are also gatekeepers of the essential
attributes of preschool teacher education if there are conflicts between application of
technologies and the real needs of pre-service teacher cultivation. In the context of change, pre- service teacher educators are presently in an ambiguous, mingled state of identity. According to
the participants’ responses, they need greater autonomy, more time, and more systematic, hands- on training support to facilitate their adaptation to the changes brought about by DT and to
reconstruct their identities. What is certain, however, is that who they will eventually become
must be rooted in the essential character of early childhood preservice teacher education and
their increasingly comprehensive and in-depth understanding of DT. Discussion of Findings Research Question 3
The third research question focused on understanding participants’ perceptions of
implementing DT in online practicum, probing their reflections on the possible opportunities and
challenges related to tech-powered practicum. According to existing studies, online practicum
has been considered a significant milestone for pre-service teachers in terms of integrating
technology into teacher preparation programs (Mohebi & Meda, 2021). However, it is more
challenging to implement online practicum in the field of early childhood, which is mainly based
on face-to-face interactions between pre-service teachers and young children, classroom

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observation, and field-based coursework that requires the integration of teaching into real
classrooms (K. Li, et al., 2022; Timmons et al., 2021; Yamamura & Tsustsui, 2021). Therefore, the third research question explored participants’ perspectives on the implementation of DT in
online practicum and invited their reflections on the possible opportunities related to tech- empowered practicum in early childhood teacher preparation. Findings under this research question showed that the implementation of DT in online
practicums is still at a very early stage of exploration and not as effective as face-to-face practice
in ECPTE programs, according to participants’ perspectives. Only one of the three programs, Sunny Normal College (SNC), experimented with two methods of providing virtual practicum
experiences during the pandemic: watching typical teaching activity videos and remote online
field observation. This form of practice is rather monolithic and incomplete compared with
previous studies’ effective virtual practicum mode, which emphasizes intentional design
considerations for pre-service teachers to develop planning and assessment knowledge and
teaching skills (Heafner, 2022). Participants’ responses to virtual practicum attempts at SNC
were generally negative due to the high technical support requirements for remote field
observations and minimal interactions between pre-service teachers and children in a non-one- on-one mode. Almost all participants held a firm view that online practicum is supplementary. It cannot
replace the real teacher-child interactions that take place in early learning education settings. Acquiring authentic, hands-on experience in the classroom is the main objective of practicum in
teacher education (Jin, 2022; Kim, 2020). However, such an objective cannot be achieved by the
current online practicum. More importantly, the unique value of real teaching experience was
highlighted by participants: the immersive, authentic teacher-child interactions had the power to

129
provoke a pre-service teachers’ sense of purpose as early childhood educators and young
children’s responses were unpredictable compared to any programmed simulation dolls. As
illustrated by previous studies, practicum provides trainee teachers opportunities to apply their
knowledge about children’s development as well as about curriculum content in real educational
settings (NAEYC, 2019; Li et al., 2022). Also, the relational aspects of traditional face-to-face
clinical observations and the social-emotional connections cannot be successfully replicated in
online teacher training (Callaway-Cole & Kimble, 2021; Heafner, 2022). Nevertheless, the journey of transformation is consistently fraught with challenges yet ripe
with opportunities. As Balduk (2008) points out, what makes the concept of “liminality” an
endearing concept is because of its possibilities for flexible adaptation and application. Findings
under research question three demonstrated that the majority of participants conveyed heightened
anticipation regarding technology-enhanced practicums in the future, asserting their potential to
address deficiencies observed in current traditional on-site practicums. For instance, online
practicums are not bound by temporal or spatial constraints, thereby affording students extended
opportunities to grasp educational concepts. Moreover, VR can facilitate simulated exposure to
high-risk scenarios, enabling proactive practice and minimizing real material wastage during pre- service teachers’ operational training. However, the structure of online practicums and the
accompanying technologies necessitate further refinement and ongoing exploration. In summary, although both challenges and opportunities were covered in findings of this
research, the challenges of conducting online practicum currently outweighed the opportunities it
presented in ECPTE programs in China at the college level. Recommendations for Practice

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The purpose of this study was to understand the experiences and perceptions of early
childhood education faculty in China on Digital Transformation in Early Childhood Pre-service
Teacher Education Programs at the college level. Based on the collected data and related
findings that were identified within Chapter Four and discussed in this chapter, three
recommendations for practice are provided. These recommendations are framed through
Turner’s Liminality Theory (Turner, 1967) and the Education Policy Implementation Framework
(OECD, 2020) for effective changes in education contexts, as discussed in Chapter Two. The
three recommendations include:
1. Build a shared understanding of Digital Transformation among different stakeholders at
multiple levels. 2. Create a systematic DT implementation plan that fully considers the nature of the ECPTE
program. 3. Develop high-quality training programs on DT-related capacities for ECPTE faculty. Table 7 summarizes the three recommendations for practice connected to the study findings. Table 7
Key Findings and Recommendations
Key Findings and Recommendations Research Question 1: What Have Early Childhood pre-service Teacher Educators at the College Level in China Experienced in Their Programs Related to Digital
Transformation?
Research Question 2: How
Do Early Childhood pre- service Teacher Educators Perceive Their Capabilities to
Integrate Technology Into Their Instructional Practices?
Research Question 3: What are
early childhood pre-service
teacher educators’ perceptions about implementing digital
transformation, particularly
regarding online practicum with
young children?
Key
Finding
1
The COVID-19 pandemic boosted a sudden shift of early
childhood pre-service teaching modality from face-to-face to
online. Most teachers perceive their digital-related skills as weak
but have low motivation to
improve. DT implementation in online practicum is still very much in
the initial stages of exploration. Key
Finding
2
The learning platform Xuexi
Tong is an important vehicle for pre-service teacher educators to
implement DT. Awareness of DT is perceived by faculty as the prerequisite for enhancing
related capabilities. Breaking time and space
constraints and simulation
features create new opportunities
for technology-empowered
practicum.

131
Key
Finding
3
Booming digital education
resource construction with full
participation has contrary low
usage. The lack of high-quality DT
training is an obstacle to
better DT implementation. Online practicum cannot replace
real child-teacher interactions for early childhood pre-service
teacher preparation. Key
Finding
4
Emerging requirements from
Vocational Education Skills Competitions are a driver of
ECPTE programs’ DT practice. N/A N/A
Recom
mendati on 1
Build a shared understanding of Digital Transformation among
different stakeholders at multiple levels. Recom
mendati on 2
Create a systematic DT implementation plan that fully considers the nature of the ECPTE program. Recom
mendati on 3
Develop high-quality training
programs on DT-related
capacities for ECPTE
faculty. As presented in Table 7, Recommendation 1 cuts across findings in Research Question 1
and Research Question 2. Recommendation 2 is about establishing a systematic DT
implementation plan, which is related to all the findings under the three research questions. Recommendation 3 focuses on enhancing teacher educators’ DT-related skills through
developing high-quality training, which is related to Research Question 2 findings. However, it is
worth mentioning that these three recommendations are interrelated when adopted and acted
upon by ECPTE programs. The depth and comprehensiveness of understanding DT concepts
among different stakeholders affect the actionability and rationality of the potential DT
implementation plan. The ability to provide high-quality DT-related training to faculty in the
ECPET context is critical to ensuring a common understanding of DT and the effectiveness of
DT practices. Recommendation 1: Build A Shared Understanding of Digital Transformation Among
Different Stakeholders At Multiple Levels
Based on the findings in Chapter 4 of this study, Digital Transformation, as an externally
top-down policy-driven disruptive change accelerated by COVID-19, has yet to develop a

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unified understanding among ECPTE faculty. It is notable that half of the participants stated they
were not clear about the concept of DT. There was no systematic, strategic analysis of the
concept of DT and how to implement it from the organizational level to the individual level. However, more than half of the participants perceived awareness of DT as the prerequisite for
enhancing related capabilities. Therefore, the first step in ensuring that DT is successful on the
ground is to ensure that the college leadership, the faculty in ECPTE programs, and all involved
stakeholders have a clear and common understanding of what DT is, its purpose, and its unique
role in facilitating future preschool teachers to help young children survive and develop in the
digital era. Firstly, the leadership of the ECPTE program and at the college level must have a clear and
deep understanding of what is at the heart of DT. As illustrated by Vial (2019), DT is “a process
where digital technologies create disruptions triggering strategic responses from organizations
that seek to alter their value creation paths while managing the structural changes and
organizational barriers that affect this process’s positive and negative outcomes” (p.10). Thus, the transformation of the value creation path is the core, and challenges in this process need to be
managed intentionally. Implementing DT is more than just increasing the number of online
courses, purchasing expensive digital equipment, or constructing cutting-edge intelligent labs. DT should foster a blend of practicality and creativity in education by embracing novel didactic
models designed to enhance both student learning and teacher instruction, such as the Flipped
classroom, Digital Cooperative Learning (DCL), Augmented Reality (AR), VR, and Mixed
Reality (Abad-Segura et al., 2020; Türkeli & Schophuizen, 2019). All the integration of digital
technologies is conducted for better learning and teaching to make early childhood pre-service
teachers more ready for cultivating young children in the digital era. This understanding needs to

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be internalized by the ECPTE leadership and consistently infiltrated and propagated by the
leaders in every presentation on DT and the DT implementation documents within the ECPTE
program to help build a shared understanding among the different stakeholders. Secondly, a shared understanding should also be an understanding based on the current state
of the ECPTE program and the actual needs of teacher educators to ensure that the conceptual
understanding of DT across the ECPTE program and the whole college, is practical and not just
academically correct, but not in line with the reality of the program. According to the interview
and focus group data from this study, digital technologies were hoped by teacher educators to
play two important roles for ECPTE programs at this stage: empowering pre-service teacher
preparation for more student-centered learning without time and space constraints and reducing
the teacher educators’ working load rather than increasing it. Based on such needs and hopes, different stakeholders should have the opportunity to discuss together the most important goals
and practices that the current ECPTE program DT needs to achieve in order to form a consensus
that can be concretized to the action level. Thirdly, building a shared understanding of DT among different stakeholders in ECPTE
programs also means a shared understanding of how the power of DT can be leveraged in
conjunction with in-person interactions, but not a replacement for these essential interactions. ECPTE program leadership, and multiple stakeholders, need to explore how digital technologies
and resources can help achieve their programmatic goals better, including what teacher educators
need to know and be able to do with facilitating digital tools in cultivating future educators who
apply knowledge and capabilities in designing developmentally and culturally appropriate
curriculum and assessment strategies for young children. Possible pathways and strategies for
applying technologies to ECPTE programs, as well as examples of best practices that have been

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proven in other countries or regions, can be written and shared with different stakeholders in the
form of an operational manual, for example, named ‘Understanding DT Better.’ Building this shared understanding would help ensure buy-in of DT-related policies from
teacher educators and build motivation for learning about and integrating digital tools so that DT
achievements expressed in policy documents or reports will become actual resources and
techniques that teacher educators and pre-service teachers can, will, and do use daily. Recommendation 2: Create A Systematic DT Implementation Plan That Fully Considers
the Nature of The ECPTE Program
The findings of this study revealed that the DT challenges faced by the three ECPTE
programs were related to the need for a systematic DT implementation plan based on the
uniqueness of the early childhood teacher profession. The low utilization of digital content
resources and the unsatisfactory role of Vocational Education Skills Competitions in promoting
DT call for more systematic and implementable strategies to form targeted DT action plans and
optimize resource allocation. A systematic DT implementation plan could be based on the Education Policy
Implementation Framework (OECD, 2020). As discussed in Chapter 2, the OECD framework for
education policy implementation introduces three dimensions for ensuring policies effectively
translate into actions. The three key dimensions include: Smart Policy Design, which refers to
clear vision, appropriate tools, and sufficient resources; Inclusive Stakeholder Engagement, which suggests ongoing engagement of diverse stakeholders with effective communication; and
Conducive Environment, which emphasizes supportive governance structures and
complementary policies for implementation (OECD, 2020). Smart DT-Related Policy Design at Both College and ECPTE Program Level

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Although the government issued increasing DT-related policies at the national and
provincial levels, according to participants’ responses, none of the three ECPTE programs or
colleges currently had a systematic DT-related policy or strategy design to guide DT
implementation. Therefore, the participants described their colleges and programs’ responses as “passive” and “fragmented.” However, it is hard to make any real change of DT without an
intentionally designed and shared policy to guide the implementation. First, it is vital to establish a clear, articulated mission for DT at the college and program
levels. This DT mission should be customized based on the college’s context and larger three to
five year strategic development planning efforts because an appropriate DT strategy aligned with
the organization’s development strategies lies at the core of successful digital transformation
(Weiß et al., 2019). Also, the mission should be in line with the college’s actual capacity and
resources and should be able to be broken down into measurable objectives. Second, to successfully achieve these objectives, it is essential to make multi-level, step-by- step action plans designed to reach the desired policy goals. To develop a feasible action plan, the leadership of ECPTE programs should consider the available and potential resources. Such
resources include funding, equipment, facilities, and time (OECD, 2020). It is essential for the
leadership of the ECPTE program to be clear about the different financial resources available for
DT. Meanwhile, the leadership should examine the current conditions of on-campus WIFI, faculty and student computers, e-libraries, and AR or VR labs that can be accessed. For example, as participants from Grant Normal College (GNC) and Chang Normal College (CNC) mentioned, the unstable on-campus WIFI had become a big challenge for them in integrating digital
technologies into their daily instructions. Therefore, improving on-campus WIFI would need to
be a priority of the action plans for these two colleges for their DT implementation. In addition,

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considering there were not enough smart simulated babies in CNC, it would not be practical to
encourage faculty at CNC to use such smart simulated babies as a primary tool for infant care
practices, as other colleges might be able to do. Moreover, it is also essential to consider the
amount of time allowed for the particular DT policy to be fully implemented and to start
generating results. For example, as mentioned by participants from SNC, constructing many e- courses in a very short time meant “finishing the task” before the deadline but low-quality course
content. Also, it is vital to take teacher educators’ personal time and energy into consideration. If, for example, the implementation of DT is the program’s priority during a particular phase of time, it should be at the top of the teachers’ agenda when compared to other tasks given by the
programs. Faculty in ECPTE programs need autonomy and time for experimentation, recognition, and reflection to better achieve their “identity transformation” during this liminal process (Beech, 2011).Third, leadership needs to fully consider the characteristics of early childhood teacher
education when designing the DT’s action plan. In the ECPTE program, authentic teaching
experiences and pre-service teacher-child interactions are essential to preparing qualified early
childhood teachers (Callaway-Cole & Kimble, 2021), and almost all participants agreed that
existing digital technologies could not replace them. Therefore, it is crucial to consider this point
when designing guiding policies related to technology-empowered practicums and innovating the
approach to utilize available technologies in practicum. At the same time, participants
acknowledged the advantages of using VR to create “irreversible” scenarios and “dangerous”
scenarios in the educational process for pre-service teachers to make simulated practices. Furthermore, given the “lack of time” phenomenon mentioned by teacher educators in this study, if DT is the focus of ECPTE program reform, then ECPTE program leadership needs to prioritize

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DT in the work of teacher educators rather than requiring them to work on multiple tasks
simultaneously and with equal importance. Last, effective and pragmatic evaluation criteria for DT implementation objectives should
be included in the DT implementation policy design. According to findings in Chapter 4, the lack
of consistent e-course design and development standards for MOOCs and digital curriculum
resources was common across the three colleges. This lack of standards or evaluation criteria led
to low quality products and low usage of the already built MOOCs and e-resources. This meant
wasted time and energy spent in the process of DT, especially within the context of limited
funding and human resources. Therefore, it is essential to incorporate an evaluation and
assessment plan for DT in every ECPTE program and, if possible, develop a research agenda
aligned with implementing the policy objectives (OECD, 2020). This aims to address how
ECPTE programs will measure success and ensure the quality of DT content and resources. With a clear mission for DT, multi-level action plans, and full consideration of
characteristics of early childhood education, the ECPTE program’s response to DT will be able
to change from a reactive state to a proactive, step-by-step approach to DT practices. A
systematic implementation plan can better help ECPTE programs allocate resources, dig deeper
into the innovative opportunities that digital technology may bring to ECPTE programs in China, and can better assist the DT of the entire college. In addition, it is worth noting that effective
strategy development is a continuous process (Martin, 2018). Implementation of DT related
policy in ECPTE contexts is not fixed but evolving, which requires constant revision and
adaptation. More Inclusive Stakeholder Engagement

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Engaging key stakeholders helps to inform initial decision-making and to identify realistic
pathways forward. Ongoing feedback loops inviting different stakeholders can assist in refining
the DT strategy over time and monitoring the feasibility and outcomes of implemented measures
(Gouëdard et al., 2020). However, in conjunction with the findings of this study, none of the
three ECPTE programs had invited faculty to participate in the development or feedback of DTrelated implementation strategies or plans. Therefore, the current DT-related changes that faculty
had experienced in their ECPTE programs, such as DT-related requirements in competitions and
developing online courses, were more of an external mandate than something they felt compelled
to do or a need to fulfill. This yielded a negative emotional state and lowered their motivation to
change (Green et al., 2017). As introduced by the OECD framework, inclusive stakeholder engagement includes
communication, involvement, and transparency (OECD, 2020). Study findings suggest that it is
crucial for ECPTE programs to involve all stakeholders in the program when designing the
action plan for DT implementation and to form a long-term mechanism for feedback
contributions. For example, some participants stated that they were good at innovating their class
teaching with the help of digital technologies, while other participants stated elder faculty might
have difficulties or reservations in using Xuexi Tong. Hence, it would be wise to include teacher
educators with different backgrounds and DT experience to form the action plan of DT together
and invite their ongoing reflections on later implementation. That way, the process of making a
DT-related implementation plan is transparent and is based on open and rich communication. Every teacher educator who has participated in the development of this plan would then have the
potential to become more engaged in DT practices and learn relevant skills, enhancing their

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intrinsic motivation because of their own emitted voice in the plan, the confirmation of their
needs, and the trust they build through involvement (Green et al., 2017; Weiß et al., 2019). More Conducive Environment
A conducive environment for policy implementation includes institutions, capacity, and
policy alignment (OECD, 2020). At the institutional level, college and program leaders play a
key role in meeting the DT objectives because they are the first movers and main agents
promoting and managing the required digital revolution (Navaridas-Nalda et al., 2020). Therefore, this study suggests that it is essential to identify DT leaders for ECPTE programs who
have a transformation mindset, leverage technology as an enabler, and have sufficient resources
and incentives to initiate DT (McCarthy et al., 2023). Such leadership of colleges and ECPTE
programs can drive a transformation towards a digital culture, not by relying on their authority or
bureaucratic sway, but rather by cultivating an environment of open discourse that enables
ECPTE communities to perceive DT as a chance for enhancing pre-services learning outcomes
(Navaridas-Nalda et al., 2020). For example, compared with CNC, the other two colleges, GNC
and SNC, had leaders in their ECPTE programs who were willing to embrace DT, as described
by participants. Thus, it could be seen that although all three programs were in liminal phases of
DT, GNC developed a quality monitoring system during the pandemic for better learning
outcomes, and SNC attempted online practicum through videos and remote observations. Such
innovative practices stemmed from the willingness and proactive role of the GNC and SNC
leadership and modeled the possible approaches to how digital technologies could be integrated. Moreover, ensuring policy coherence to avoid contradictory incentives for stakeholders is
also crucial for ECPTE programs. There needs to be coherence between the newly established
DT implementation policy and the complementary policies regarding the vision, the design, and

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the resources (OECD, 2020). For instance, during the focus groups, participants highlighted that
the demands they faced from programs and colleges were multiple, making it difficult for
individual teacher educators with limited time and energy to prioritize DT as their daily teaching
practice in group discussions. Therefore, the related teacher evaluation policy should be
redesigned for a better landing of DT to reduce teacher educators’ burden in meeting multi-task
requirements. However, it is also crucial to remind ECPTE leadership here that the DT in early
childhood teacher preparation must be integrated with the program’s fundamental mission of
preparing future teachers of young children. Therefore, designing a series of mutually synergistic
policies based on the characteristics of this profession must be adhered to. Furthermore, as part of a conducive environment, the ECPTE programs should be
encouraged to actively investigate methods for fostering collaborative partnerships involving
government, businesses, and academia for better DT practice. Such collaborations can facilitate
resource allocation and build a solid, supportive DT community (Miao et al., 2023; OECD, 2020). For example, as to the development of MOOCs with poor quality and low utilization, it
might be more efficient and less wasteful of resources to unite several ECPTE programs from
different colleges to develop MOOCs and e-resources and then share them, rather than each
ECPTE program building the same curriculum resources parallel. These changes would build a
more systematic, inclusive, and conducive environment for effectively integrating DT into
ECPTE programs. Recommendation 3: Develop High-Quality Training Programs on DT-Related Capacities
for the ECPTE Faculty
Faculty of ECPTE programs are the forefront implementers of DT. Without the right
capabilities related to DT, the ECPTE programs will not have the needed knowledge, skills, and

141
mindsets to implement DT successfully (Miao et al., 2023). However, this study revealed that
most of the participants considered their digital-related skills as weak, and there was a lack of
high-quality DT-related training, especially tailored to the early childhood education profession. Therefore, develop high-quality training programs on DT-related capacities for ECPTE faculty is
necessary for better DT implementation. Mishra and Koehler (2006) proposed the Technology, Pedagogy, Content Knowledge
(TPACK) framework of training for pre-service and in-service teachers to become competent
digital teachers. This framework advocates that teachers should be trained from a technology, pedagogy, and content perspective. Therefore, the training content should include intersections
of the three domains, such as technology pedagogical knowledge (TPK), technology content
knowledge (TCK), and pedagogical content knowledge (PCK). This framework is actually
aligned with the training wish lists of the participants in this study. They wanted to learn about
new digital technologies that can be used, but more importantly, how to apply those technologies
effectively in their professional instructions. At the same time, half of the participants also
discussed that solid professional knowledge and teaching experience are the basis for ensuring
the effective use of digital technologies in the classroom. Therefore, the TPACK model can
inform the development of high-quality DT training while continuously improving the
professionalism of teacher educators in ECPTE programs. Furthermore, based on the feedback from participants, there exists a significant demand for
establishing systematic support at the program level to enhance the effectiveness of DT-related
training. Initially, training methodologies and techniques need to be tailored to the goals of DT in
the context of ECPTE programs, necessitating further innovation to illustrate how early
childhood educators can leverage digital technologies effectively. Trainers should exemplify the

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use of technology during the training and instruct teacher educators on utilizing technologies for
their continuous professional growth (Yildiz, 2022). That way, teacher educators can serve as
role models for pre-service teachers in their daily instructions. Moreover, it is essential to ensure
after-training practice through the encouragement or requirements from the program level, as
suggested by three participants in this study (Participants CNC3, SNC5, and GNC2). Meanwhile, intentionally designed evaluation of such training programs is key to guarantee their
effectiveness in enhancing faculty’s digital capacities and facilitating DT implementation
(Kirkpatrick & Kirkpatrick, 2006). Kirkpatrick and Kirkpatrick’s (2006) four-level model can be
employed to evaluate teacher educators’ reactions, learning, behavior, and the training results in
the training programs. Lastly, based on this evaluation, suitable incentives for teachers' participation in the training and application of the skills gained in training should also be
considered. Continuously improved training programs and evaluation approaches should also
consistently feed into the DT practice strategies developed by the ECPTE program. As discussed, the three recommendations in this study are integrated, and they have a dynamic, mutually
reinforcing relationship. Limitations and Delimitations
Limitations are influences that the researcher cannot control, and delimitations are the
boundaries set by the researcher that need to be addressed (Creswell, 2014). A limitation of this
study is that because the control policies in China varied greatly from city to city during the
pandemic, the length of time the three colleges were closed was very different, and this caused
the teachers’ experiences and exposure to online teaching to be different across the three schools. For example, CNC closed for the shortest time among the three colleges, and this might have
influenced the CNC’s response to handling the shifting of teaching modality to online teaching.

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Another limitation is that among the three programs, only SNC attempted online practicum
during the pandemic and then returned back to on-site practicum as their primary practicum
mode. Therefore, the findings of online practicum in this study are concluded from a very limited
sample and cannot be applied to all ECPTE programs in China. Some delimitations of this study are rooted in the sample selection. First, there are more
than 50 public normal colleges specializing in early childhood education in China, so selecting
19 faculty members from three particular colleges still only provides a very restricted basis for
understanding DT in pre-service teacher education in ECPTE programs. In addition, since the
screening survey was delivered by a particular faculty from each college, participants who filled
out the survey might have some commonalities, which may have limited the diversity of
participants. Moreover, this study does not explore the DT phenomenon in private schools and
investigate faculty’s perception in private settings. The next step might be to do comparative
research. Also, the digitization process of education varies significantly from region to region in
China, and three schools from three different provinces do not allow the study to depict the story
in China fully. Therefore, the results of the study cannot be generalized to the entire ECPTE
experience in China. Recommendations For Future Research
There are several areas recommended for future research based on the findings and
delimitations of the current research. First, online practicum has been considered by previous
research as a milestone for pre-service teachers in terms of integrating technology into the
teacher preparation program (Mohebi & Meda, 2021). However, of the three colleges
interviewed for this study, only SNC had experimented with online practicum. Therefore, future
research that investigates more ECPTE programs conducting online internships could potentially

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reap the benefits of more varied and innovative attempts at informing recommendations on how
to better conduct online practicum for pre-service teacher preparation in the future. Second, according to the findings of this study, high-quality DT-related training is a crucial
component for successful DT in ECPTE programs. However, research on the content and
methods of DT training for pre-service teacher education is very limited and even rarer in early
childhood education. Therefore, it is hoped that future researchers will conduct more in-depth
studies on DT training in early childhood teacher education and construct training curricula, methods, and resources better suited to this area of specialization. Third, since this study only examined the DT of ECPTE programs in public colleges, a
follow-up study could compare the situation of DT in public and private colleges and explore
whether DT is different in comprehensive four-year university-level ECPTE programs in China. Finally, since DT is a global trend in the education context, future researchers are also
suggested to look for innovations in DT in ECPTE programs and connect global best practices to
learn from each other and transform these ideas and approaches with full consideration of local
political and cultural backgrounds for better DT practice. Conclusion
This study investigated the experiences and perceptions of early childhood education
faculty in China on digital transformation in Early Childhood Pre-Service Teacher Education
programs at the college level. Through nineteen one-on-one semi-structured interviews and three
focus groups with faculty who worked in three different ECPTE programs in China, the study
depicted the transit state of the ECPTE programs and teacher educators amidst the current of
digital transformation.

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The study highlighted various key findings that helped to understand DT in the context of
early childhood pre-service teacher preparation in China: First, the COVID-19 pandemic spurred
a rapid shift in early childhood pre-service teaching from in-person to online formats. Against
this backdrop, the learning platform Xuexi Tong and Vocational Education Skills Competitions
were employed to implement Digital Teaching among pre-service teacher educators. Meanwhile, while substantial MOOCs and e-resources were developed with full participation, the usage of
such resources remained low in ECPTE programs. As for digital literacy, many teachers
acknowledged their weak digital skills and also exhibited low motivation to improve. Furthermore, DT implementation in online practicum was still in its infancy. Although cutting- edge digital technologies offered new opportunities for innovative practicum experiences, teacher educators firmly believed that online practicum could not substitute genuine childteacher interactions in early childhood pre-service teacher preparation. According to these findings, this study suggested that building a shared understanding of
DT among different stakeholders at multiple levels and recognizing that DT in practice is not
equal to merely increasing quantifiable infrastructures and e-courses as the prerequisite for better
DT implementation. Moreover, a systematic DT implementation plan that fully considers the
nature of the ECPTE program, encouraging more inclusive stakeholder engagement and a more
conducive environment, is essential to turn DT ideas into substantive changes. Meanwhile, high- quality DT-related training that integrates early childhood pedagogical content knowledge, technology content knowledge, and technology pedagogical knowledge is urgently needed. As discussed in Chapter 2, many drivers contributed to the DT of the ECPTE program in
China, including technological advances, policy requirements, and societal needs. However, when ECPTE programs have to "face" the challenges of DT, DT practitioners must be clear,

146
“The drivers are interlinked and interact with each other in complex ways. Understanding the
complexities that are behind the drivers of change is crucial in building robust yet flexible
strategies on digital transformation” (Rohmann & Klein, 2019, p. 6). This study argues that there
are two keys for ECPTE programs to embrace this complexity and to find an effective path for
implementing DT on the ground. First, be aware that Digital Transformation is not about technology (Tabrizi et al., 2019). Technology is only the support act for change (Kane, 2019, Tabrizi et al., 2019). In the realm of
education, DT involves envisioning new ways to integrate people, data, and processes to enhance
learning environments for students, educators, parents, and system leaders in today’s digitally- driven era. It also entails readiness for future innovations and challenges (McCarthy et al., 2023). Therefore, it is vital for the ECPTE program leaders and teacher educators involved to fully
understand and analyze the concept of DT in the context of early childhood education and
develop well-informed DT strategies. Second, never forget that no matter how much technology has evolved, “people” are at the
center of education, especially when it comes to teacher preparation for young children. Through
the lens of Turner’s Liminality theory, ECPTE programs in China at the college level are in their
liminal phases of digital transformation, and the programs’ evolving state is associated with the
ongoing reconstruction of teacher educators’ identities. By digging into the teacher educators’
individual experiences and perceptions, this study advocates for a more people-oriented approach
to DT implementation. The dynamic and dialect relationship between ECPTE programs in
transition and the individuals in the midst should be considered during DT-related strategy
design for more effective outcomes. Finally, how DT can better reduce teacher educators’ burdens and create richer practice experiences for students without cutting into the emotional

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interactions among teacher educators, pre-service teachers, and young children in ECPTE
programs is a question that scholars must explore profoundly and consistently.

148
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Appendix A Recruiting Information for Potential Interview Participants
Hello, my name is Zhuyun Xia. I am a doctoral student in the Global Executive EdD
Program at the University of Southern California. As part of my dissertation, I am conducting
interviews to help understand the experiences and perceptions of early childhood education
faculty in China on digital transformation (DT) in Early Childhood pre-service Teacher
Education (ECPTE) programs. I invite you to participate in the interview to share your valuable experience and perceptions. The study results will contribute to the implementation of DT in pre-service teacher education in
China and enrich the research in this field. The interview will be a one-on-one encounter with me and scheduled for about 45 minutes. Your participation is voluntary and all information will be kept confidential. Participants will be
offered the equivalent of a ¥100 gift card for taking part in the interview. If you are interested in participating, please follow the links below. Should you have any
questions, please email me at Zhuyunxi@usc.edu. [University of Southern California Information Sheet ]
(Please read this first before you go to the Screening Survey]
[Screening Survey Link ]
(Please take the survey if you are interested in participating, it will take you less than 5 minutes
to finish. If you don’t want to participant, you don’t need to take it.)
Many Thanks, Zhuyun Xia

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Appendix B Screening Survey Items
Thank you for your interest in participanting this study. Your participanting is entirely
voluntary and you can terminate your participation at any time. ■ Please confirm that you are over 18 years of age (check the box) ☐
■ All the participants who complete the interviews or the focus groups will receive a gift card
of 100 RMB for JingDong within one week of the completion of the interview via mail. If
you choose to participate both, you will receive two gift cards (100 RMB for each). ■ Please check the following options that apply to you:
I am interested in participating in the 45-minute individual interview.☐
I am interested in participating in both the individual interview and the following 1-hour focus
group.☐
Please answer the following questions:
1.What is your gender?
A) Male B) Female C) Prefer not to say
2.What is your age?
3.What is the highest level of education you have completed?
A) College Diploma B) Bachelor’s Degree C) Master’s Degree D) Ph.D. or higher E)
Other (Please indicate)
4.Are you currently teaching in the early childhood education department?
5.Have you integrated digital technologies in your daily teaching process, which refers to
conducting online teaching, using digital platforms/tools to facilitate teaching and learning, or
participating in constructing digital resources for teaching purposes?

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6.How many years have you worked in a pre-service teacher education program (refers to
any pre-service teacher education programs in colleges/universities; please include your previous
working experience if applicable)?
7.How long have you worked in your current early childhood pre-service teacher education
program (in years)?
8.Have you ever served or currently served in a leading administrative role (dean, deputy
dean, director, or deputy director who makes a strategic plan and is in charge of the program
operation ) in a pre-service teacher education program?
9.If you choose “yes” to question No.8, please indicate how many years have you served in
a leading administrative role in total?
10.Please enter your contact information for the PI to follow-up with you. Thank you. Email address:
Wechat ID:
Phone Number (Optional):

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Appendix C University of Southern California Information Sheet
My name is Zhuyun Xia, and I am a doctoral student at the University of Southern
California. I am conducting a research study to help understand the implementation of Digital
Transformation (DT) in Early Childhood Pre-service Teacher Education (ECPTE) programs
through teacher educators’ perspectives. The name of this research study is “Understanding
Digital Transformation of Early Childhood Pre-Service Teacher Education in China”. I am
seeking your participation in this study. Your participation is completely voluntary, and I will address your questions or concerns at
any point before or during the study
You may be eligible to participate in this study if you meet the following criteria:
1. currently teaching in the early childhood education majors in the three colleges
2. have integrated digital technologies in the teaching process, including but not limited to
online teaching, using digital platforms to facilitate teaching and learning, or participating in
constructing digital resources for teaching purposes
3. feel comfortable to share personal experiences related to your daily teaching life
4. available to participate in a 45-minute individual interview
5. consent to be audio recorded, which is only for use in this study and will be de-identified. 6. You are over 18 years old. If you decide to participate in this study, you will be asked to do the following activities:
1. Complete an online screening survey for 5 minutes. 2. Participate in a 1:1 online (Tencent Meeting) or in-person interview for 45-50 minutes.

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3. Participate in a 60 minute focus group with 2-3 other teacher educators to share your
opinion on DT of ECPTE programs in a group conversation context (optional, the PI will
confirm your interest again after the individual interview). 4. Review the analysis of your interview transcript via email for 10-15 minutes. After you complete the individual interview or the focus group, you will receive a gift card
of 100 RMB for JingDong or Starbucks .If you choose to participate in both, you will receive
two gift cards (100 RMB for each). The gift card will be sent to you via email. I cannot promise confidentiality in a focus group. I do not know what other participants will
say about the study or your responses. I will publish the results in my dissertation. Participants will not be identified in the results. I will take reasonable measures to protect the security of all your personal information. All data
will be de-identified prior to any publication or presentations. I may share your data, deidentified with other researchers in the future. If you have any questions about this study, please contact me: zhuyunxi@usc.edu. If you
have any questions about your rights as a research participant, please contact the University of
Southern California Institutional Review Board at (323) 442-0114 or email hrpp@usc.edu.

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Appendix D Individual Faculty Interview Protocol
Warm-up Questions
1. Tell me about your path to becoming a pre-service teacher educator in early childhood. 2. Tell me about your current role as a pre-service teacher educator for early childhood
education in your current ECPTE program. RQ 1: Experience related to DT in their programs
Now, I am going to ask you about digital transformation in your program and college
context. By that, I mean strategic responses from your program that are triggered by the fast- developing digital technologies and related educational policies. Of course, the COVID-19
pandemic also pushed us to switch online. 3. What have you experienced since the beginning of the pandemic in the field of early
childhood education?
4. What specific strategic changes at your program and college have you seen related to
digital transformation, such as policies and procedures?How would you describe your program’s
response to the digital China/smart education-related policies in general?
5. What about your own experience related to digital transformation in your program?
RQ2: How do they perceive their capabilities to integrate technologies into their
instructional practices?
6. Compared with traditional teaching, how would you describe the difference/specific
features of online teaching, if any? Can you share an example?
7. What kind of teacher do you think you are from the perspective of online/digital teaching?
What makes you give such a description of yourself?

171
8. What capabilities do you think are important for faculty working in early childhood
teacher education programs who are integrating technology into their instruction?
9. Tell me a recent time when you felt challenged or proud of your online teaching. 10. Describe any digital resource you’re using or constructing for teaching (such as PPTs
for downloading, case study videos, scenarios for mock teaching, etc) for your students, if any?
What caused you to develop that particular resource? What are the benefits and challenges
brought by these digital resources in supporting students’ learning?
RQ3: Their perceptions about implementing digital transformation, particularly regarding
online practicum with young children. 11. How would you describe visual practicum/fieldwork in your program for trainee
teachers if any?
12. What are the challenges and opportunites of implementing digital transformation into
online practicum with young children?
13. How about the outcomes of online practicum? If there is anything you think works
really well or you want to improve about it, what is on your mind?
14. What kind of support do you want or need when implementing digital transformation in
the early childhood pre-service teacher education process?
Table D1
Interpretation of the Interview Protocol Design
Research Questions Conceptual Framework Interview Questions
RQ1 What have early
childhood pre- service teacher
Framework on the concept of
Digital Transformation (Vial, 2019) through an organizational
1. What have you
experienced since the beginning
of the pandemic in the field of

172
educators at the
college level in
China experienced in
their programs
related to digital
transformation?
perspective. “DT is a process where digital
technologies create disruptions
triggering strategic responses
from organizations that seek to
alter their value creation paths
while managing the structural
changes and organizational
barriers that affect this
process's positive and negative
outcomes”( Vial, 2019, p.10)
When probing the RQ1, I am
going to ask questions through
the lens of Vial’s DT
framework, so potential
changes in policies, structures, procedures, and strategies at the
level of ECPTE programs and
maybe an upper college level
will be asked. However, this
question will also be kept open
for any personal feelings, emotions, and personal stories
early childhood education?
2. What specific strategic
changes at your program and
college have you seen related to
digital transformation, such as
policies and procedures?How
would you describe your
program’s response to the
digital China/smart educationrelated policies in general?
3. What about your own
experience related to digital
transformation in your
program?

173
that the interviewee wants to
share. Because the question is
more about their individual
experience in this
transformation. RQ2 How do early
childhood pre- service teacher
educators perceive
their capabilities to
integrate technology
into their
instructional
practices?
TPACK Framework for
teachers’ competencies of
digital teaching (Mishra &
Koehler's, 2006)
(1) Technology pedagogical
knowledge (TPK)
(2) Technology content
knowledge (TCK)
(3) Pedagogical content
knowledge (PCK)
I will employ the TPACK
framework to support my
understanding of teachers’ competencies in digital
teaching. Meanwhile, some
1. Compared with traditional
teaching, how would you
describe the difference/specific
features of online teaching, if
any? Can you share an
example?
2. What kind of teacher do you
think you are from the
perspective of online/digital
teaching? What makes you give
such a description of yourself?
3. What capabilities do you
think are important for faculty
working in early childhood
teacher education programs

174
particular themes that emerged
from the literature review on
DT in Chinese HEIs will be
considered, such as the
construction of digital
resources/platforms. Since it is about teacher
educators’ self-perceptions, their self-efficacy/attitude on
DT may influence their
expression, this may be
discussed later during the data
analysis.
who are integrating technology
into their instruction?
4. Tell me a recent time when
you felt challenged or proud of
your online teaching. 5. Describe any digital resource
you’re using or constructing for
teaching (such as PPTs for
downloading, case study
videos, scenarios for mock
teaching, etc) for your students, if any? What caused you to
develop that particular
resource? What are the benefits
and challenges brought by these
digital resources in supporting
students’ learning?
RQ3 What are the early
childhood pre- service teacher
educators’ perceptions about
implementing digital
This part will be pretty open
since the implementation of DT
in different ECPTE programs
may vary. So the overall
perception of DT
implementation and
1. How would you describe
visual practicum/fieldwork in
your program for trainee
teachers if any?
2. What are the challenges and
opportunites of implementing

175
transformation, particularly
regarding online
practicum with
young children?
descriptions of online practicum
will be asked. Also, recommendations from teacher
educators will be inquired. All the results generated from
the data will be analyzed
through the lens of Turner’s
Liminality Theory.
digital transformation into
online practicum with young
children?
3. How about the outcomes of
online practicum? If there is
anything you think works really
well or you want to improve
about it, what is on your mind?
4. What kind of support do you
want or need when
implementing digital
transformation in the early
childhood pre-service teacher
education process?

176
Appendix E1 Focus Group Introduction and Ground Rules
Introduction
(1)Purpose of the focus groups: The purpose of the focus group is to further understand
your perspectives on digital transformation in ECPTE programs in a conversational context and
discuss the themes that emerge during the individual interviews. (2)Confidentiality: The PI will use recorders and take notes to make sure that she captures
your experiences and ideas accurately. The PI’s goal is to protect every participants’ privacy and
confidentiality. So please keep all comments made during the focus group confidential and not
discuss what happened during the focus group outside the meeting. (3)Length of the focus group: The focus group will be approximately 1 hour. If
participants have a lot to share, then an extra 30 minutes will be conducted after a 10 minutes
break after one hour. Ground Rules
(1)There are no right or wrong answers. Your opinions and perspectives on the
implementation of digital transformation in ECPET programs are the main focuses of this group
conversation. (2)You do not have to agree with everyone else in this group if that is not how you really
feel or think. It is expected faculty will have different views on the questions. (3) Please turn off your cell phones during the focus group if possible. Thank you again for your participation! Looking forward to a great communication
experience for the group!

177
Appendix E2 Focus Group Protocol
1. Awareness and knowledge of Digital transformation: What do you think the digital
transformation of ECPTE programs is? What kind of development opportunities does it bring to
your program (teaching and administration)? What needs to change with the help of digital tools?
What might not be suitable to change, and why?
2. Scenario: If you are the head of a college or program, you now have the authority and
funding to take charge of the digital transformation of the college or the program. Please write
down three scenarios where you feel digital tools are most needed to empower you in the context
of early childhood education. 3. Digital curriculum resource construction: In the interview, many teachers mentioned
the construction and utilization of e-courses and digital resources. What do you think is a
reasonable way or process to build digital resources for ECPTE programs? What kind of
resources do you really want?
4. Time and energy: Admit various educational reforms, maybe digitalization is just one of
them. How do you think about your time and energy, or “state of being”? Can you share more?

Abstract (if available)

Abstract This qualitative study investigated the experiences and perceptions of early childhood education faculty in China on digital transformation (DT) in Early Childhood Pre-Service Teacher Education (ECPTE) programs at the college level. Nineteen one-on-one semi-structured interviews and three focus groups with faculty who worked in three ECPTE programs in China were conducted to explore the three research questions: (1) What have early childhood pre-service teacher educators at the college level in China experienced in their programs related to digital transformation?; (2) How do early childhood pre-service teacher educators perceive their capabilities to integrate technology into their instructional practices?; and (3) What are early childhood pre-service teacher educators’ perceptions about implementing digital transformation, particularly regarding online practicum with young children? The interviews and focus group discussions generated ten key findings from the faculty’s perspective on DT implementation and deepened understanding of the complicity of DT implementation under the national policy advocating for DT in teacher education in China. Three recommendations were proposed for better DT in ECPTE contexts: (1) Build a shared understanding of DT among different stakeholders at multiple levels; (2) Create a systematic DT implementation plan that fully considers the nature of the ECPTE program; and (3) Develop high-quality training programs on DT-related capacities for ECPTE faculty. These recommendations can help Chinese education policymakers adjust future DT-related sub-policies or strategic plans. They can also benefit the implementation of DT in ECPTE programs with more systematic strategies and needed resources for better outcomes. Also, this study provided a practical reference for other worldwide colleagues exploring and practicing DT in pre-service teacher education in the digital era.

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Asset Metadata

Creator Xia, Zhuyun (author)

Core Title Understanding digital transformation of early childhood pre-service teacher education in China

School Rossier School of Education

Degree Doctor of Education

Degree Program Global Executive

Degree Conferral Date 2024-08

Publication Date 08/13/2024

Defense Date 07/09/2024

Publisher Los Angeles, California (original), University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag digital transformation,Early childhood,OAI-PMH Harvest,pre-service teacher education

Format theses (aat)

Language English

Contributor Electronically uploaded by the author (provenance)

Advisor Krop, Cathy (committee chair), Picus, Larry (committee member), Stowe, Kathy (committee member)

Creator Email zhuyunxi@usc.edu,zhuyunxia@vip.163.com

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-oUC113998TEO

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